Once the support beams warp, wooden buildings become structurally unsound and uninhabitable. Every wooden building that was underwater for any length of time is up for condemnation.
With concrete, it depends. Some of those buildings in New Orleans very well may have been built to resist flooding, even extended flooding. It depends how well the concrete was sealed, if it was sealed at all.
Ordinarily, concrete is porous, and if immersed for an extended period of time, the rebar oxidizes and expands, which spalls the concrete. If this is superficial, it's no big deal. Otherwise, the building is structurally unsound and uninhabitable.
If the concrete is coated or sealed, the buildings may be salvageable.
He likes to spout off about how rich Louisiana would be if it were independent, because of this reason and that.
But with all those resources, shouldn't Louisiana be rich now?
Most other states are viewing wealth more in terms of knowledge and services, since that's where our economy is going. It's why, for example, the U.S. still has a growing economy, despite sky-high energy prices that in the past would have triggered a deep recession.
The Louisiana mindset still views wealth primarily as a function of natural resources and industry, which is another reason they trail the rest of the country.
His diatribe about how rich Louisiana would become based upon the duties it would force us to pay is yet another sign of antediluvian economic thinking. It's the thinking that led to the Great Depression. Restrictions to trade inhibit wealth; they don't create it, in this world economy. It's not 1800 anymore.
And I bet our friend is a well-educated, relatively successful person. But he's a product of a society that is totally backwards compared to the wealthier states, be they red or blue. It's like a time warp -- they even have blue-dog conservative Southern Democrats, still, a species that started fading in Texas in the 1980's, and pretty much had died out 10 years ago.
And our friend remains under the pleasant delusion that everybody that fled Louisiana inevitably will go back because it's so super-wonderful and they love it. Well, I've met many folks who already have found new jobs, are shocked at how high their salary is, and at how low the cost of living is, and at how much nicer the neighboorhoods and schools and roads and everything else are, and aren't ever going back. And it's not as if I'm living in a beautiful, well-run place. It's just that New Orleans was that bad, and that for those living there who never got the opportunity to see how other Americans live, ignorance was bliss.
Perhaps for the folks at the top of the economic food chain who sent their kids to private schools, and whose jobs are still there, there's reason to go back. But if you think the New Orleans area will be anywhere back near 1.3 million people within the next decade, you're in denial.
I wouldn't call Louisiana politics "socialist" by any stretch of the imagination. That's an idiotic right-wing talking point. Massachusetts is "socialist:" high taxes, big government.
In Louisiana, taxation for individuals is extremely low, and services are even lower. It's business taxes and corruption that siphon off people's wealth -- the extreme difficulty in doing business compared to Texas keeps jobs away, and their own politicans steal whatever money they do pay in taxes. It's like a Central American or Carribean banana republic, not Euro-style "social democracy."
Katrina should be an opportunity for Louisiana to look at how their way of doing things has let them down, and perhaps finally to start the meaningful reforms that will make their state compe ive with those around them, and stop their slow, inextricable decline. Instead, it sounds like our buddy already has digested the talking points about how poor, poor Louisiana got a raw deal from the federal government and how much it deserves. This inability to practice introspection and take responsibility for one's own failures is the hallmark of dysfunctional societies, and I suppose our neighbors to the east won't be leaving that fold anytime soon.
I'll bet that mindset also lies behind this Saints controversy. Poor, poor us, we deserve our Saints, Benson has a lot of money, so he should take pity on us and keep his team here, and if he can't afford it, then the other owners should help him pay for it, because we deserve it,and if they won't, then Congress should give us money to keep them. Gimme, gimme, gimme.
Instead of saying, "Let's get the Saints in the fold, they're important to the local economy, they're a visible symbol of the city, and a new or substantially refurbished facility needs to be part of the campaign to redevelop New Orleans, as a new, vibrant cultural and economic center," we hear "let's patch the Superdome back together, put some tarp on the roof, do the bare minimum for decontamination, and buy off a judge to force them to play there."
My biggest fear is that all this money will be spent in New Orleans, and we'll have a city that's no less blighted, rebuilt in the same low spots, without much meaningful new infrastructure, with no real plan other than sprucing up the downtown tourist districts and handing out earmarks to loyal cronies, with the same inherently flawed earthen levees, just higher, and only superficial attempts at wetlands restoration. We'll have a metro area of 500,000 people, just as stagnant economically, with entire districts just left there, neither rebuilt nor restored nor razed, just abandoned to the gangs with city block after city block of collapsing crack houses, while politicans three blocks away smile into the cameras as they proclaim a "reborn" New Orleans in front of the newest casino. And any problems will be just because the mean ol' federal government screwed them over again, and by the way, NFL, where's our new football team? Because that's how things are done in Louisiana.
Our friend may hate to hear it, but it's the truth, and that state is never going to turn things around until they stop waiting for everbody else to give them their "due" and just start building. Texas gets 9 miles of royalties because it negotiates from a position of strength, while Louisiana negotiates from a position of weakness. Stop whining about how unfair it is. Reform your state to make it lean, mean, and compe ive, cut out the graft and corruption and sense of en lement and antiquated system of laws and governance, and people will deal with you in a more evenhanded way because you hold the cards and they have no other choice.
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You realize that something like 70% of all gas consumed in the US has gone through refineries in Houston, right? 
