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)

Many people are simply rebuilding their homes without elevating. It costs too much money, they say, and they're willing to bet that another disaster won't come along for another 40 years, the length of time between Katrina and New Orleans's previous devastating storm.

Others are putting their faith in the new dictates of the federal flood program, or relying on their own estimations of the risk.

"The last big storm was Betsy in 1965," said Cynthia Horne, 47, who is rebuilding her home in New Orleans East but not elevating it because of the cost. "I guess it's a gamble we're taking. If it takes another 40 or 50 years for the next one, I don't think we'll be here. I trust in God."

But to a handful of people at least, neither the existing requirements nor the new federal recommendations make sense because they ignore Katrina's punishing lessons.

The most meaningful safety benchmark, in their view, is the waterlines left on houses when Katrina's floodwaters receded.

Both Petrie and Jim Pate, the executive director of the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, have decided to go beyond the elevation recommendations from FEMA and raise their homes high enough that the first floors will be above Katrina's floodwaters.

"You'd have to have almost a tsunami-type wave for the flooding to be worse than Katrina," Pate said.

The federal rules required Pate to elevate Habitat homes in the Upper Ninth Ward a little over three feet above the ground, he said. He's raising them more than five feet.

Likewise, the federal rules require Petrie to raise his home only about 3 1/2 feet over the ground, he said. But he's raising it about six feet beyond that.

"This should be our model," he says, waving at his new home.

He invites a visitor to compare the waterline on the house next door -- reaching nearly to the top of the front door -- with the height of his stoop. His stoop is about a foot higher.

A home built to the current federal recommendations in his Lakeview neighborhood "would have been under six feet of water in Katrina," he said.