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	Volume 8 No. 2 © September 5, 2005

Relocating the Victims of the 8/29 2005 Katrina Catastrophe

By J.J. Publius

A simple plan to give Katrina refugees their own new homes and new lives

On 8/29 2005, Katrina, a category 4 hurricane, left a trail of destruction along the Gulf coast from New Orleans, Louisiana to the Florida panhandle. The worst damage was in New Orleans, where levee breaching caused flooding of some 80% of New Orleans. Nevertheless, the damage all along the Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi coast was devastating and horrible too. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have been displaced from their homes. Many will be able to go home as soon as streets are cleared and utility services restored. Others will be able to go home after essential repairs are made to their homes. However, many homes were demolished by the 8/29 Katrina hurricane. Thus many victims of the 8/29 disaster have no homes to which they can return. We suggest a simple and relatively inexpensive plan to relocate the now homeless, 8/29 victims. Of course Hurricane Katrina victim participation in this plan is voluntary. It would be an offer made to the Hurricane Katrina victims -- an offer which they are free to accept or to decline. In this edition of The American Voice, we unfold the basic relocation plan with broad brush strokes. In upcoming editions of The American Voice, we will unfold the rest of the plan and fill in more details. Simply, the Katrina Refugees Relocation plan descibed below would give each family opting into the plan a 40-acre farm on what now is federally owned land in the Western United States and Alaska.
A Plan for Relocating Katrina Refugees New homes need to be found for thousands of New Orleans refugees. Many communities, states, and other organizations are providing temporary housing for these people. Some Katrina victims and refugees shortly will be able to go home. But the homes of many New Orleans and other Gulf coast Americans were either destroyed or damaged to a point where they will have to be demolished. Here is a plan for providing housing for those Katrina victims and refugees who have no homes to which they can return, or just do not want to go back. Simply offer them land and homes on what now is land owned by the United States government -- actually it is our land because we own the government!. In principle, the plan would work in many ways like the 1862 Homestead Act -- with major differences in the details. Under the 1862 Homestead Act, the claimant had to improve the land and cultivate a certain percentage of it for agriculture. If such improvements were made, the land would belong to the claimant at the end of the five years. (Built in a Day: The Oklahoma Land Rush) We propose that any displaced refugee or victim family of the 8/29 Katrina catastrophe be offered 40 acres of federal land. Then the refugee family has to build a house and a barn on the property -- and turn the property into a working farm within five years. If a family that is given such a 40-acre piece of land completes the required improvements within five-years and resides on that farm for a total of ten-years, the family is given title to the property. (Family here is meant to include a single adult person, too.) To insure this program is not abused, the deeds for the properties should restrict the land to agricultural use. Additionally the deeds should restrict the properties from any further subdivision and the subsurface and mining rights should be reserved by the DOI. There is plenty of U.S. government land to put this plan into effect now. The United States Department of the Interior, DOI, manages 507 million acres of surface land, or about one-fifth of the land in the U.S. (U.S. Department of the Interior) Of that 507-million acres, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is responsible for managing 262 million acres of land--about one-eighth of the land in the United States. (BLM Facts) Only one-million acres of federal land would be needed to provide 25,000 40-acre farms. Presuming an average of four people to a family, that should accommodate about 100,000 people. On the basis of current estimates of the number of people permanently displaced by Hurricane Katrina, 25,000 properties should be ample to accommodate all those that might accept the offer. If not it would take only another one-million acres of that 507-million acres managed by DOI to do the job. Under the 1862 Homestead Act, claimants got up to 160 acres of free land. In the Katrina Refugees Relocation plan, people get only 40 acres. Under modern farming practices and agricultural science, a well-managed, 40-acre farm is more than large enough to provide for even a large family and provide some excess production capacity for cash crops and cash livestock production -- on top of what it takes to feed and clothe the family.		Building the Houses, Barns, and Schools for the Katrina Refugees Relocation Plan Most if not all of the people that would be getting 40-acre farms under the Katrina Refugees Relocation plan, are not experienced with farming or building their own homes and barns. Thus not only is the Katrina Refugees Relocation plan simply a land give-away and refugee relocation plan, it also is a retraining plan. The Katrina Refugees Relocation plan offers free land to the refugees.There are stings. And it is not a welfare program but more in the nature of a retraining and workfare program. Initially, the refugees are going to have to build their own houses. And they are going to have to clear the land if it is wooded land. Thus the refugees are given chain saws to cut down enough trees to provide lumber for their new homes. Then the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) and/or the Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture will use portable band-sawmills to mill the lumber for each home, on site. If the land is not wooded, then the Forest Service will provide the lumber. The government will provide all the nails, screws, and other hardware necessary to build the new homes. The government also will provide each refugee family with the necessary carpenter's/builder's tools to construct the new home. Appropriate construction plans, advisers, and instructors will be supplied by the government too. This would be a good place to seek volunteers to help with the actual Katrina Refugees Relocation plan project, Either PBS, the Discovery Channel, or a TV channel in that vane has a very interesting documentary that shows a man, by himself, building a very nice log cabin from scratch all by himself within about a month -- using all hand tools. That month included milling all the lumber by hand. That documentary could serve as a good instructional and motivational film to show the refugees. Moreover, it suggests that the refugees should be able to get their new homes built (at least to the point where they basically are ready to live in) within a month. There could be arguments all over the place on this suggestion. Why not build homes exactly like the one in that documentary. And, except for the milling of the logs and lumber, have the refugees use all hand tools as is done in the documentary. Once the homes are built, each refugee community could build a community building, a school, a cooperative store, a firehouse, and so forth. Next on the agenda for the relocated refugees is building barns. This would be done in similar fashion to the house building procedures. Each relocated family would be given a wood-burning stove for heating and cooking. The tops, limbs, and mill trimmings from building the home and the barn should be enough to heat the home for the first winter. Of course, this might vary depending on the locations and tree species available where the homes are built. Solar panels could be used to provide additional heating as well as electricity for the homes. In upcoming issues we will look at getting the farm operation started, building communities and infrastructure, educating the kids, and lots more.
Email us at 8-29#pennsylvaniavoiceDOTcom (change the # to @ and the DOT to a .) There are two good Katrina and 8/29 related chat channels on the EFNnet IRC network, #katrina-debate and #8/29.

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