From a humble rectangle of wood, framed onto brick stanchions that kept it hovering several feet above the ground
The water washed through buildings downtown at head height
By the time those surging waters sloshed back into the lake, flowing south again to overcome the levees around New Orleans, the community of Liberty Bayou, for the most part, had already been destroyed. Mary Pichon Battle, who’d packed just three days’ worth of clothes and left a lifetime’s worth of belongings, had little to come home to. The house was unlivable.
Add height. Costs something, but also not new technology.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stilt_house
I’ve always thought it’d be cool to have a house on stilts in the coastal Georgia salt marsh, but I’m pretty sure it’s legally very difficult to be allowed to build on wetlands. Sooner or later these folks in Louisiana are going to end up with a similar problem as what was once usually dry land becomes usually a body of water.
Gonna speed up a lot with insurance rates hitting like they are in Florida.
lived in New Orleans for a few years. first apartment was 11 feet below sea level - it flooded a few times. 2nd apartment was still below sea level but was on a raised foundation - hurricane (a few before Katrina) smashed a giant oak tree into the house. 3rd apartment was closer to the downtown area (ground was less reclaimed swampland and more solid) - still below sea level but not near trees. nice place, was there for a year then I gtfo before Katrina hit.
most of Louisiana is a floodplain, most of it does not have a very high elevation. most of the cities around Lake Pontchartrain are either at or below sea level - Slidell is relatively mountainous with an average elevation of 13 feet (which means basically nothing when a hurricane rips through). everyone that lives there (near Lake P) is familiar with flooding and is not under any assumptions that they are not living in a flood prone area.
