Nehmo wrote:

Let's say you're building a 1,500 square foot house plus garage on a
sufficiently sized lot from scratch in New Orleans after the water has
been drained. You want to build so that the house would suffer zero
damage should it endure a hurricane of similar size as Katrina.

You would have to build to survive the wind, the flood water, the
wind-caused waves in the water (In Katrina-NOLA, the wind had subsided
before water came in; this may not be the case in the future), and the
impacts of debris.

You need to anticipate looters and unwanted government interference.

The house would have independent utilities, communication, and supplies.
And the house would need a secure means of transportation for escape if
necessary.

How should this house be built and what should it have?


On the North Carolina shore - near the mouth of the Cape Fear, one fellow
built shacks on stilts. They get some fearsome hurricanes in those parts.
The stilts, he claimed, allowed the house to sway in the wind (rather than
resist and get pushed over). And the stilts kept the house from flooding in
the surge.

--
Saville

Replicas of 15th-19th century nautical navigational instruments:

http://home.comcast.net/~saville/backstaffhome.html

Restoration of my 82 year old Herreshoff S-Boat sailboat:

http://home.comcast.net/~saville/SBOATrestore.htm

Steambending FAQ with photos:

http://home.comcast.net/~saville/Steambend.htm