mardigras

When we were waiting for the first debris pickup the piles were so high I couldn't see most of my neighbors down the road, and that was at houses that are still standing. A couple blocks south of me where the houses came down the debris traveled blocks. Along the streets closest to the beach much of it was sucked into the gulf and replaced with other debris. We literally ran out of space to put debris until some of it was removed.

You can't take the stuff to a landfill. There is no place for an individual homeowner to take stuff even if they have the capability to do so. Even if someone has plenty of money after all the costs they have incurred post-Katrina and wanted to contract private debris removal they will find themselves on an astromomical waiting list. Some homeowners cannot remove the debris from their property until a nighboring property is cleared that is blocking access. Most are at the mercy of whether their local officials secure the funds and resources to truck the stuff out.

I fortunately am sandwiched between a main part of my area's business sector and the historic beachfront homes many local "bigwigs" live(d) so my immediate area has been cleared "quickly" (although major demolition has only started the past month or so)... but I don't have to drive too far where that is not the case. It's like that in the entire Katrina affected area, some pockets of cleanup, other areas of red tape and beaurocracy. I've traveled approximately 100 miles of the coast recently and until you do that the magnitude of it just doesn't quite come through on TV news reports. What's most mindboggling is that in the good bit I've traveled the amount of stuff I have seen personally is probably not more than 1% of it (which reminds me, I have some Biloxi pics to sort through and share with you guys).

We are talking an estimated half-million buildings that have to be either partially or completely removed on top of all of the other stuff Katrina destroyed, which in some areas was everything. If where it is to go is held up in red tape you can't send it off, and that is why you see pictures 6 months later where nothing has been done.

You know the old law of supply and demand? The more of something there is the less it is worth? Well, that's the case with cars here that were trashed in Katrina. By a fluke some guy my mom knows passed by one day when she was here and we were outside and he offered to haul mine off, most people are having to pay to have them removed and many still sit where they landed. There certainly isn't anyone buying them.

Everything that was in my house and yard had to be hauled off. Storm surge ruins everything. You can't give it away, let alone sell it

The other problem that was mentioned in this thread is insurance. Granted most of the houses they show in poor sections like the 9th ward on TV reports had no insurance but people that did have insurance are finding themselves little better off as the insurance companies try to avoid paying. My home though still standing was unlivable due to damage that should have been covered but Allstate cut me a joke of a check for $157.40 My mom and neighbor were told by Allstate they aren't covering anything.

I have been quite fortunate, but I encounter people every day who have not been and see first-hand what obstacles are blocking their recovery.

Just wanted to bump the thread with a little insight from someone in the middle of it...