Thursday, January 26, 2006

Destruction Tour

A dear friend who is an expatriate New Orleanian was in town this weekend so we did the obligitory disaster tour. Not the commercial one of course, we just drove around in our car. We call this "Ze Tourre of Diztrucktion" in a bad Alsacian accent, for no particular reason.

Unlike our previous trips though, this time we started at West End Boulevard and drove all the way through the city. We went through the City Park, Mid-City, and Gentilly neighborhoods, then around through the Lakefront area. We drove for a solid hour through block after block of every.single.house destroyed, and we didn't even head out towards New Orleans East or the 9th Ward. The scope of it is just mind boggling. I kept losing track of where I was, because the terrain is so unrecognizable, then suddenly realize I was right in front of a building I used to work in, or a restaurant I ate lunch at a couple of times a week. 80% of a major American city, annhiliated right in front of us.

I'm stunned about the White House canning the Baker Bill, which would have provided funds to the city to purchase destroyed homes from the owners and either redevelop the area or dedicate it to parkland, as a prevention for future flooding. The city's redevelopment plan is actually good, based on solid planning principals used throughout the world. Expecting individual homeowners to rebuild entire neighborhoods is about as practical as paving a street one house at a time.

Back at our house, we had a second adjuster come out on Monday, and he seemed a lot more reasonable than the first guy. We expect to get a revised settlement offer this week. That will be a relief. We still have a case pending with our agent's errors and omissions policy in regards to our flood coverage. I sincerely hope they make us an offer on that one and we don't have to file suit. The lawyer has been a great help on all of this. I'm still waiting to hear from the SBA about the disaster home loan we applied for. I have a month to pay off Countrywide, and I'd like to know we'll be able to borrow the money to fix the house.

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