Walking around my Mom's blighted neighborhood of Lakeview this Thanksgiving, the now familiar landmarks of FEMA trailers, trash heaps and overgrown lawns dominated the landscape. These abandoned homes and lively trailers are a bleak monument to bad engineering, invasive industry practices and poor environmental policy that for 70 years have contributed to 1,900 square miles of land loss (24 square miles a year in Louisiana). These now submerged barrier islands, wetlands and marsh grasses have traditionally provided populated areas with a buffer from the impact of hurricanes, which explains why just a side swipe from Katrina devastated the city so profoundly.
While residents wait and see if their representatives can procure a share of the federal offshore drilling royalties for coastal restoration measures, New Orleanians are left with the daunting decision to leave for higher ground or to re-build. My own mother, whose three-foot raised craftsmen cottage was flooded with six feet of water for over two weeks, has decided to rebuild. This brave decision leads to many other questions and decisions—mainly, how to rebuild.
There are numerous challenges to building in New Orleans: scarcity of laborers and contractors, three times the average price for materials, and general bureaucracy. Yet there are two sides to this doubloon, for there is also one giant opportunity to rebuild bright green and undo the 20th century trend of erecting single-family energy wasters. Luckily, Louisianans have a ready-made resource for rebuilding efficiently with the Louisiana State University AgCenter’s “Building your Louisiana House: Homeowner’s Guide to Shaping the Future of Louisiana Living.” The “Sustainable Louisiana House checklist” outlines five key features: 1. Resource Efficiency, with an emphasis on green, renewable and local resources; 2. Durability, with special considerations for termites, mold, and hurricane protection; 3. Health; 4. Convenience; and 5. Practicality.
In addition to this pamphlet, LaHouse provides contractors, design professionals, code officials, and homeowners an Online Training Center, seminars to be held throughout Louisiana, and the LSU AgCenter’s Louisiana House Home and Landscape Resource Center outside of Baton Rouge. The LaHouse project is “designed to showcase solutions for Louisiana’s unique climate and conditions.”
While we have only gutted the inside and are still waiting to treat the mold, the Louisiana House is a welcome resource to aid in our path to rebuilding our family’s home. The future of Louisiana’s coast rests in Congress’s hands, but as the makeshift street signs and volunteer garbage crews illustrate, New Orleanians are hard-pressed to wait around for others to fix what needs fixing. The Louisiana House project and the homeowners that heed their advice are working together to ensure sustainable and efficient communities.
