Show Post Katrina housing reaches treetops J Jenny enny Jarvie Los Angeles Times Some people in this tiny ravaged Katrina-ravaged town talk of Harry Hulls Hull's vinyl-clad vinyl home as if a spaceship had landed on the bayou It stands out not because it is built on land only 5 feet above sea level scores of people have rebuilt on low lowland lowland lowland land but but because it looms 18 feet above ground It is raised so high on wooden pilings that Hull 70 must climb 26 steps to get to his front door Yet the structure could offer offers a glimpse into the future of his city and other lying low-lying coastal areas New flood elevation standards being devised by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and pioneered in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina would require some houses on low coastal land be rebuilt 20 feet off the ground In Pass Christian where only of the city's homes survived the 2005 hurricane city officials fear that the new maps will frustrate rebuilding The agency's highest required elevation in that city has gone up 6 to 26 feet above sea sealevel level And although officials in neighboring Bay St. St Louis to the west have vowed to appeal the new maps many on the east side o of f the bay worry that battling the the federal government would be an absurd gamble Already Pass Christian is struggling to scrape together enough tax revenue from its residents to pay its police officers Everything we do now is about survival said Mayor Leo Chipper McDermott adding that soaring insurance and construction costs have hampered recovery There are people who say and its it's true that if people in other states are going to pay to repair these homes we have to do some things to prevent them from flooding But let me tell you they are not going to torun torun torun run people off the water At just 30 feet above sea sealevel sealevel sealevel level at its highest point and 4 feet at its lo lowest vest Pass Christian has required homes to be 13 feet above sea level since Hurricane Camille hit in 1969 After Katrina the city raised the height to 16 feet But now that the government has calculated flood risks with new airborne digital mapping technology homes are expected to be 18 to 26 feet above sea level City officials are urging residents to rebuild soon so their homes can be in at the existing elevations When new maps are approved the the city has u until til late April to appeal many who wish to rebuild in the city's lowest neighborhoods will have little choice but to build their homes closer to the treetops Although the historic section of town was built along a natural bluff about abou 85 percent of it isnow is isnow isnow now in a flood zone Some people will move and that's the desired effect said Jeffrey Bounds an engineer and urban planner who is working as a planning consultant for Pass Christian But its it's not as direct as you would hope some people will actually build houses 20 feet off the ground It would be more effective if FEMA just told people they cant can't live in those areas Many houses have been rebuilt higher but local officials say they are unsure how much more hurricane- hurricane proof they areO are O OK we might escape the water but will our houses be as secure up in the treetops asked Philip Wittmann the city's alderman at large Surely that would increase the risk of wind of-wind wind damage Said Dayton Robinson city Planning Commission chairman got a track one-track mind All they think about is height What they need to think about is strength Homeowners who want to rebuild after the new maps are approved could be eligible for assistance grants of but experts agree that money wont won't cover the cost of elevating a house According to local contractor Jim Schmitt the cost of building a house rises about 25 percent when it is raised 1 10 0 feet in the air because workers have to use thicker pilings build two foundations one on the ground and one in the air and work on scaffolding rather than ladders Factor in the aesthetics Its very hard Schmitt said to make it look like anything other than a box inthe inthe in inthe the air and the practicality of climbing more than 20 steps a day and nd Schmitt said many might choose to live elsewhere Its not that its it's not doable Its It's more a 1 question of what will it do doto doto doto to the fabric of community Do people really want to live like that To avoid a marshland sprawl of on stilts Bounds the urban planner is pushing the concept of the treetop village dense foot 8 to 15 high foot-high communities of compact houses clustered on higher land and linked with communal boardwalks Residents would be able to use common parking areas elevators and stairwells and the rem na t l m land could be converted to national parkland While Bounds said i developers were I expressing j an interest in the treetop village many locals seemed less than charmed r Librarian Sally James noted 1 that Katrina unraveled i. i the boardwalk along Pass i I Christians Christian's beach and sent the planks crashing against i her home like battering I rams Many worry that treetop I living would be unsuitable for elderly and disabled I people About a month after volunteers built a three- three I bedroom home for Louise I I Hildegarde Spencer 83 she continues to dwell in a i cramped mobile home on I the edge of her lotI lotI lot lotI I dont don't f feel like crawling up all those steps she said as she stepped out of her mobile home and peered up at the 16 wooden steps leading to her new front I porch Her old house she noted had only five steps It looks nice but Im I'm satisfied down here Amy Hardee a Baptist minister from North Carolina who works out of the Gray Hut a volunteer center that rebuilds homes for the elderly and the disabled said that a couple of seniors who had taller houses rebuilt for them se seemed ed apprehensive about |