New Orleans: Can Restoration Saints Prevent Demolition?

When given the task of restoring commercial and residential buildings, disaster service companies know that getting to the site is of the utmost importance in order to mitigate water's damaging effects. But with the devastation from Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall on Aug. 29, 2005, many firms were unable to get to New Orleans quickly enough in order to start drying out the flooded buildings.

"Logistically, it was almost impossible to get into New Orleans," said Howdy Russell, partner at the large-loss division of Paul Davis National, a full-service mitigation, restoration, and reconstruction network. "When we pulled into the city, we hit a National Guard sentry post, and they said that we were the first civilians there. That was on September 12th. Most people weren't able to get to their flooded-out properties for at least three weeks, and certainly work couldn't begin right away."

Water that sits for an extended period of time can have devastating consequences for buildings. Structural issues such as framing, timber supports, and foundations can shift and warp, and these issues only worsen the longer the water remains. Because of this, some see the trend in New Orleans as shifting significantly towards demolition rather than restoration. "We follow the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning, and Restoration Certification guidelines for water damage recovery," said Russell. "But when it comes to porous and some semi-porous materials that have come into contact with that rising water for an extended period of time, those have to be thrown out."

A look at one case illustrates this fact. Charged with restoring a prominent television station in the New Orleans area, Russell described the scene and the challenges his company faced even when action was taken quickly. "[The television station] has six-to-eight feet of flood water in its building, which contained millions of dollars worth of equipment, cameras, and sets," he said. "They jumped on the restoration quicker than anybody and it was still a total gut. But because they moved quickly, the station is able to reoccupy the space and will be one of the first businesses that was completely flooded out to get back up and running in New Orleans."

Obstacles to Overcome

Once companies established themselves in the city, other obstacles slowed down the restoration process. A government-required bidding process has had an effect, according to David King, senior vice president of Disaster Service's catastrophe division, a firm that specializes in fire, smoke, mold, and water damage restoration.

"The biggest problem is that the government wants multiple bids on the flood work," he said. "In days gone by, you would have a contract and agreed-upon prices and you would just go do the work. Now they want to put stuff out for bid and have at least three competitors bid for the projects. It is more difficult to get the work, and it [causes] a delay in starting the restoration work."

According to FEMA's web site, the agency states that it requires bids in instances where an award is expected to exceed $25,000. It summarizes the project's requirements, publicizes it, and sets a deadline for bids to be received. Once the deadline has passed, the bids are publicly opened and the contract is awarded to "the lowest responsive and responsible bidder." The agency states that it also procures by direct negotiation with firms if, for any reason, it is not possible to draft adequate specifications for the project. FEMA states that a contract "will be awarded to a responsible contractor whose proposal conforms to the solicitation and is most advantageous to the government, price and other factors considered."

"FEMA is requiring … that they be involved in the scope, the estimating, and whether or not the prices are acceptable, which has never been done before," said King. "They have greatly slowed down any kind of restoration work. Say a building gets wet due to a flood. If they delay the restoration work four or five weeks waiting for the bids and the scope to be written, obviously the damage could be severely enhanced because now it is not only wet and damaged, it is also moldy. Mold can double the cost of a job."

Brian Spiegel, co-owner of Spiegel Certified Restoration, agrees that mold can have serious consequences for a structure that has been saturated with water for an extended amount of time. "Whenever water is involved, that's a catalyst for mold," he said. "All it takes is a spore and an organic food source, of which the components of a structure are all made. Some mold can start growing in a very short period of time and then you're into the secondary aspect of microbial contamination. When you get saturation at that level, it really can be a problem to the structure and its contents."

How much of a problem, though, is up for debate. If a building and its structural components are saturated and moldy beyond restoration, then the only remaining economical option is demolition. Russell agrees that mold is a part of almost every loss in New Orleans, but says that it may not be the biggest problem in the region. "In the flooded-out areas, there are chemical and sewage/bacteria concerns," he said. "Even though mold is all over the building, it's going to be demolished anyway. [The sewage and bacteria] may be more dangerous than the mold."

Spiegel echoes the same sentiment. "There always are bacteria, which thrive in moist environments," he said. "That hasn't come to the fore like mold has, but I suspect that down the road, it will become the next big thing."

Other environmental concerns could cause many to opt for the bulldozer instead of restoration. "The gasoline tanks associated with gas stations and cars, they basically all emptied into the streets," said Russell. "All of the potential health hazards of those chemicals were released into the water. Different agencies have said that it was so diluted because of the amount of water and that it didn't reach dangerous levels, but that issue should be addressed."

What's the Plan?

Even if a majority of commercial and residential buildings are deemed better off demolished, undoubtedly this is a temporary action that does little to protect New Orleans from similar devastation in the future. According to predictions from the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University, nine named storms will develop into hurricanes in 2006, with five of those expected to reach "intense" status (Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale). They also predict a 47 percent chance that an intense hurricane will hit the Gulf Coast region, which spans the Florida Panhandle to Brownsville, Texas.

"The question is, what will FEMA allow [builders] to do?" said King. "Are they going to require houses to be out of the floodplain? Are they going to make them jack everything up 10 feet in the air? A lot of these questions have got to be answered before people will even know what to do. Why start remodeling if later FEMA will tell you that you have to raise the whole facility up five, 10, 15 feet in the air?"

According to a press release from the White House's Office of the Press Secretary, the Lake Pontchartrain levee is slated for complete repair by June 1, 2006. The project aims to repair the breaches that resulted from Hurricane Katrina, correct design flaws within the system, and to bring the levee to the authorized height area, pre-Katrina. It will get additional reinforcement, and several canals will be fitted with a pumping system so that water can be effectively pumped out of the canals and into the lake.

In a release, Don Powell, the federal coordinator for hurricane reconstruction and rebuilding, stated, "If a hurricane such as Katrina ever visited New Orleans again, I'm convinced that the work that the [U.S. Army Corps of Engineers] would be doing as I've described will prevent any catastrophic flooding. There will be some flooding, but not the catastrophic flooding that has occurred. The levee system will be better and safer than it has ever been before."

The state of Louisiana also is taking action. Last month, in a special session, the state legislature approved adoption of the International Building, Residential, Existing Building, Mechanical, and Fuel Gas Codes. The codes will apply to all buildings being rebuilt in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, as well as all buildings to be built or rebuilt statewide starting in 2007. It requires homes and businesses built along the Gulf Coast to withstand winds of 130 to 150 miles per hour. The legislation that put the code into effect also establishes a 19-member council to oversee enforcement by local governments. Louisiana's Governor Kathleen Blanco also is calling another special session early this month, in which she plans to put forth a focused agenda to accelerate the recovery.

Regardless of the obstacles that reconstruction and restoration companies face, it seems clear that the city will be rebuilt, but the going may be slow. "The devastation is so complete, you just cannot believe it," said Russell, "and the city is so much more recovered today than it was four months ago. I mean, it was like a very bad — or very good — science fiction movie when we first went in there. But because New Orleans functions as the port for the mouth of the Mississippi River, the city will be rebuilt, whether it's on stilts or using debris to elevate the topography as in Seattle, the city will come back."