Seen on the AP wire:
The federal government is considering buying out as many as 17,000 homes along the Mississippi coast and remaking the land into a vast hurricane-protection zone, raising anxieties that it could destroy the waterfront lives many residents are struggling to rebuild after Katrina.
The Mississippi Coastal Improvement Program could cost $40 billion, including buying the homes, building levees and restoring barrier islands. The land could be converted into wetlands or other public uses, such as golf courses or bike trails, but could not be sold for private development.
The article mentions the understandable concerns and criticisms with the idea, including that it’s a bit tardy now that reconstruction is well underway; concerns about decimating coastal communities since it’d be a voluntary program leaving an odd patchwork of populated and vacant lands; and why Mississippi and not other areas…. but I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad idea.
If the country is seemingly on the hook for billions of dollars of federal assistance every time a major disaster strikes…why not pay a little less money now to help get folks out of harm’s way?