Katrina évidemment (au moins) aussi cher que l’Irak

Un tel événement doit avoir toutes les mesures de l’exceptionnel : on annonce donc d’ores et déjà que Katrina et ses suites seront au moins aussi chers que l’Irak. A l’évaluation initiale de $100 milliards dont un quart serait payé par les assurances, tend à se substituer une évaluation de $80-$100 milliards en argent public, en plus de l’intervention des assurances. Cela se situe au niveau du coût d’un an de guerre en Irak.

Ces évaluations sont générales et théoriques. Elles devraient enfler, comme c’est l’habitude avec la bureaucratie américaniste. Les conditions naturelles et industrielles de La Nouvelle Orléans constituent un handicap supplémentaire qui devrait accentuer les coûts de reconstruction de la ville. Voici quelques explications: « “You have to repair and rebuild the sewage treatment plant and sewer infrastructure, as well as the drinking water infrastructure. You're talking about a massive public works programme of rebuilding that I don't think we've seen in this country before. We're talking about like how much money we're putting into Iraq,” said Hugh Kaufman, [senior policy analyst for emergency response at the Environmental Protection Agency] who worked on the clean-up of New York after the terrorist attacks of September 11.

» “You have a large amount of hazardous materials. Industrial discharges to the sewers have now been released. Sewage that would go into the sewers and into wastewater treatment plants, all of that is being released. You have oil and gas from gasoline stations, and waste oils that have been released. You've got household hazardous materials, you've got pesticides, you've got chemicals,” he said.

» Gordon Masterton, of the UK's Institution of Civil Engineers, said: “I'm very pessimistic. The ground below New Orleans is very absorbent, like a sponge, and soaked in water that sponge will have swelled up in uneven ways. When they pump the water out again the sponge will contract, so there'll be quite a lot of movement in road surfaces, water pipes, gas pipes and sewer pipes. I would expect quite a lot of damage to those.” »

Mis en ligne le 7 septembre 2005 à 08H38