by Kevin Caruso
October 4, 2005
The flood in New Orleans (caused by the break in the levees after Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29) has caused extensive damage to homes and vehicles, and Mike McDaniel, the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, said that between 140,000 and 160,000 of the 213,000 homes in the city will need to be leveled. He also said that about 350,000 vehicles were ruined.
Mayor Ray Nagin indicated that houses will not be bulldozed without consulting with the owners first.
“There's this myth out there that we will start demolitions en masse before people get a chance to kind of assess and weigh in. We won't do that,” said Nagin.