Why do we want stupid things to happen?

So, the story now is “Katrina counties are slow to repopulate.”

I say “good”.

Look, these counties were basically depopulated and structures ripped off the map from a hurricane.  That should tell reasonable people that the location where they built WAS SUSCEPTIBLE TO BEING ERASED BY A HURRICANE.  So susceptible, in fact, that it actually happened.  THAT’s why your hurricane and flood insurance is so high.  Not because the insurance companies hate you, but because you insist on building or living in a house that is very likely to be under water at some point during the life of your insurance policy.

QUIT BEING STUPID.

If the hurricane took your house once, it will take your house again.  There is no good reason for people to want to rush back in droves.  It’s A GOOD THING that they stay away and build a life in a place that is unlikely to get wiped off the map—unless, of course, the location is so economically vital that they simply have to live there, in which case the land should be raised a few feet like they did in Galveston.

So, if you’re going to go back to New Orleans or the Gulf Coast where your house was ripped off its foundations and tossed around, then the foundation was ripped up in a similar fashion, or your house was simply deluged with gazillions of tons of water, then you’ll have to build a little bit more robustly—and that will take time.