For Those Rebuilding in New Orleans, How High?

New Orleans native Al Petrie is trying to take no chances with his new home, right. Post-Katrina floodwaters reached near the top of the front door of his neighbor's home. "I'll be dry," he said. (By Peter Whoriskey -- The Washington Post)

NEW ORLEANS -- Be careful walking out the front door of Al Petrie's new home. It's a long way down.

Fourteen steps above the sidewalk, about 10 feet over the street, the front stoop is perched high like a lookout post within a fortress of brick.

The home is built far enough up, Petrie says proudly, that "when the next Katrina comes, I'll be dry."

What if a more powerful hurricane strikes?

Petrie squints and frowns.

"I just can't imagine it getting much worse than Katrina," he says.

As residents struggle to rebuild some of the tens of thousands of ravaged properties here, few questions unnerve people more than how safe their homes will be in the next catastrophic flood. And the key to that is how high above the ground their homes will stand.

Some, like Petrie, are lifting their dwellings far above surroundings. Others are betting that Katrina was so rare that nothing that bad will come their way again, and they're building just as they were before the storm. But in a city daunted by profound uncertainties about the future, the issue of home elevations arouses these often-unspoken fears like no other.

For flood insurance purposes, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has recommended that people rebuild to the elevation requirements in effect before the storm, or three feet above ground level, whichever is higher. But officials acknowledge those levels won't ensure safety -- they certainly didn't in Katrina, when many homes took on 10 feet or more of water.

Meanwhile, the Army Corps of Engineers, which is repairing the city's levees and flood walls, isn't guaranteeing protection when a hurricane of Category 3 strength or higher strikes.

"It's a risk each individual must decide whether or not to live with," according to a Corps statement. "History has proven time and again that Mother Nature will throw something bigger at these protection systems than what was built so people should recognize that that threat always exists."

The financial viability of the federal flood insurance program, which took a staggering $22 billion hit in Katrina, may one day depend on whether homeowners take steps now to reduce the risks.