New Orleans: Does anyone who is not returning to New Orleans after the hurrican get reimbursment from the gov?

Question

I'm an Americorps member researching for service learning. I want to know if people who were affected by the hurricanes but do not want to return to New Orleans to rebuild, was there any reimbursment for them?

Answer 1

How have we spent 800 Billion Dollars there when  less than a Million people live there.

Were is all this money going

Answer 2

reimbursement for what?????  To be reimbursed you must first have expended some money for something which you returned.  That does not apply to anyone you are talking about.  They have already been supported by the tax payers for a year now.

Answer 3

Millions of dollars went to special housing assistance checks for folks who needed a place to live in whatever city they found themselves after leaving the devastated area.  In fact, if it had not been that my job paid for my housing when they moved me out of town for several months, I would have been eligible for some FEMA housing assistance myself.  But since I had another source of funding, I didn't even apply.

Answerer G.O., you asked a question with an obvious chip on your shoulder.  Nonetheless, I'll answer it straight out for you.

The money is going towards the salaries (and materials purchases) for rebuilding the levees, drainage systems, and other aspects of flood protection.  It is going to rebuilding of Federal highways damaged by Katrina.  It is going to rebuild schools, government offices, and other public facilities.  It is earmarked for hospitals, port facilities, sanitation systems.  It is going towards rebuilding a city dealt a crippling blow to its entire infrastructure.

You must not have realized that the port of New Orleans is one of the busiest in the USA, #1 in certain categories (though not all) of shipping.  We of "N'Awlins" are at the point where river barge traffic has to change to ocean-going traffic.  We are the southern-most concentration of rail heads and highways for shipping that changes between ocean-going and land-based carriers.  We are the hub at which ocean-going tankers offload crude oil for insertion to pipelines.

The money is going towards rebuilding a city that is a major element in the chain of shipping by which products enter or leave the USA by many different carrier methods.  If you like imported products, do without us and watch your prices go up tremendously as other ports have to take up the slack.  If they can.  But many cannot.

Your comment implies that the country should forget about N'Awlins.  But think again.

Tell me where in the USA there exists a major city that is not subject to one or more of the following:  Hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, earthquakes, droughts, sinkholes and mudslides, excessive rain, ... where do YOU propose we should move?   Central part of the USA?  Tornado alley or the flood zone in the USA Mid-West rivers?  The left coast, with eroding cliffs, earthquakes, and pollution?  Where?

AND if you think that a lot of money is going towards N'Awlins, just remember - the rights of way and other land requirements for the shipping infrastructure have already been bought in N'Awlins.  Abandon the city and you have to replace all of that infrastructure, including purchasing more land.  Can you imagine the land grabs that would occur?  If you think the price tag is expensive now, add in the cost of buying up new tracts of land, building new roads, building new rail lines, etc.   Trust me, you want to repair, not replace.

Answer 4

No.  Neither will there be compensation for people who return to New Orleans. The federal courts issued a decision a few months ago agreeing the city was flooded because the levee system (which failed) was negligently designed and constructed by the US Army Corps of Engineers.  However, the court also affirmed the Corp's immunity from legal action in such cases.  That means no "settlement" will be forthcoming.

There are many myths about New Orleans and Katrina, and your question seems to have attracted many of them.

The most prevalent myth is that New Orleans was "built below sea level".  Not true.  Most of New Orleans is above sea level and the bits that are BSL are usually only a little below.  It also wouldn't have been a problem if the levees were properly constructed.

Probably the next most prevalent Katrina myths is that "no one left when they were warned".  In reality, the evacuation of New Orleans was a tremendous success and 95% of the metro area's 1.4 million population was able to leave with only 48 hours notice. Half of the remaining 5% went to the Superdome, which was the designated shelter. Most of the rest didn't evacuate because they were too poor to afford to pay $300/day for hotel rooms and restaurant meals (there were almost no free places to go and FEMA did not start paying for hotels until after the disaster).

The federal government claims it spent over $100 Billion for hurricane aid.  However, that was the amount allocated to 5 states and 3 hurricanes - NOT for New Orleans. Also a huge percentage of the "aid" was money the government spent on >> itself << for "operations" and another huge percentage was insurance payouts. People have to pay for insurance - it ISN'T "aid".  New Orleans is eligible for only a small fraction of the amount mentioned in another answer and bureaucracy has held up much of that (more than 2 years after Katrina).

And so on.....

Answer 5

No! Not even for the ones that lost every thing they had because the ins. companies refused to pay for water damage. The hurricane was the biggest debacle in American History, a lack of the government action and a court system that allowed the ins. companies to get out of paying for a great many claims by denying water damage claims  and some got out of paying by saying the damage was caused by wind. It is unbelievable that this could happen in America.

Answer 6

Why would the govt pay them??

If my house is destroyed by a tornado, I get my insurance coverage check, and I still own the land to rebuild on, but the govt doesn't owe me anything!

Answer 7

Let's see. The people in New Orleans, of their own free will, decided to live there. Despite the fact that New Orleans gets hit with a hurricane just about every year and despite the fact that they knew that.

Now a question is asked if these same folks who make a rationale decision to not live in a hurricane zone will get money for having common sense for once.