Sorry, I was a bit too cryptic. If you click on the “Flood” icon in the link you will see a blurb on the 1953 Stavenisse flood (there was also trouble in the UK as a result of the related storm). The city was nearly abandoned for a while after the flood. I don’t know what percentage of the original residents returned, but government assistance was involved in sustaining them and rebuilding the city. The Deltawerken program was underway at the time of the flood, but was it was altered and expanded in the aftermath. An interesting story here.

I guess we’ll see whether Fallujah works out as another example.

From John’s post he appeared to be talking about some sort of economic programme to address bankruptcy and unemployment problems in New Orleans if, as is apparently likely, it takes 3 to 6 months to pump the water out. I don’t know of any programme for economically re-establishing a city after 3-6 months of abandonment .

BTW, thanks for the link – the Dutch have done some amazing work.

Yes, I like the thought of this’ being the nemesis to his hubris, but hang fire for the moment. It seemed perfectly reasonable, ten months ago, that his complete failure to capture bin Laden or stop religious loonies from popping up in Iraq or Afghanistan would count against him with the American public.

One hopes that their leases have such clauses. In addition to inventory, there’s equipment on the premises, which is also hopefully covered. However, since it looks like life in New Orleans will be substantially disrupted for several months, any business would need to be able to survive that period. In addition, since housing and ‘life support’ is minimal in New Orleans, businesses will have a problem with their people.

http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/ap/20050830/capt.ladm10208301530.hurricane_katrina_ladm102.jpg

… a young man walks through chest deep flood water after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Flood waters continue to rise in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina did extensive damage when it made landfall on Monday. (AP Photo/Dave Martin).

Compared to:

http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/afp/20050830/capt.sge.cyn78.300805074130.photo01.photo.default-268×384.jpg

… two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans, Louisiana.(AFP/Getty Images/Chris Graythen).

Economically I have a couple of questions. Firstly, will it not be the case that rebuilding/renovating buildings will become insanely expensive due to the incredible demand driven by the insurance payouts? Secondly, will that affect the insurance payouts themselves. Our policy (not in the US) states that we are entitled to the replacement cost of the house, which is obviously going to be much higher if the cost of labour quadruples.

The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers,the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.”

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States.

Half the national guard are in Iraq; money being diverted from reinforcing levees to Iraq (where it ends up in the pocket of Haliburton etc).

Will Katrina give Bush the kiss of death?

“People who thought of New Orleans only as a mecca of jazz and jambalaya are about to get a lesson in the unheralded commercial prominence of the Big Easy. . .

“In coming weeks, the economic fallout will ripple across the country. Is it enough to tip the United States into recession? Probably not. But consumers will curse Katrina every time they gas up, and some major exporters already are puzzling over how they’ll reach customers if Louisiana ports remain idle for a significant period.

“With global oil supplies already stretched, energy is the immediate worry. The gulf’s treasure-trove is its roughly 4,000 offshore oil-and-gas operations, connected to land by 33,000 miles of pipelines. Together, they account for more than one-quarter of total U.S. oil production. Louisiana’s Offshore Oil Platform, known as the LOOP, also is a major entry point for foreign oil.

“Katrina wreaked havoc with that delicate network, prompting the evacuation of thousands of energy workers from more than half of the gulf’s nearly 1,000 manned platforms and rigs, the Minerals Management Service said. . . ”
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2005-09-01-katrina-econ-fallout-usat_x.htm

There’s worse news, though:

New Orleans warehouses hold about a quarter of the nation’s raw coffee, 211 million pounds.

We should probably not expect lines at our coffee shops soon, though.

“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has identified millions of dollars in flood and hurricane protection projects in the New Orleans district. Chances are, though, most projects will not be funded in the president’s 2006 fiscal year budget to be released today. In general, funding for construction has been on a downward trend for the past several years, said Marcia Demma, chief of the New Orleans Corps’ programs management branch. In 2001, the New Orleans district spent $147 million on construction projects. When fiscal year 2005 wraps up Sept. 30, the Corps expects to have spent $82 million, a 44.2 percent reduction from 2001 expenditures.”
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4200/is_20050207/ai_n10176537

“New Orleans had long known it was highly vulnerable to flooding and a direct hit from a hurricane. In fact, the federal government has been working with state and local officials in the region since the late 1960s on major hurricane and flood relief efforts. When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA.

“Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.

“Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security—coming at the same time as federal tax cuts—was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars.”
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051313