René O'Deay gBlog

For some light relief, I'm pleased to announce the streetcars in New Orleans will get Federal Stimulus cash.

If you live in Uptown New Orleans, part of the $787 billion federal economic stimulus package is coming soon to a streetcar line near you.

The Times-Picayune archive
The U.S. Transportation Department announced Friday that the Regional Transit Authority will get $2.4 million in federal stimulus money to improve the St. Charles Avenue line.

Read the details here:

NowPublic

Tags: Transportation | New Orleans | Energy | Transit | Upgrade | reconstruction | public transport | US Economy | streetcars | US Politics | Stimulus | Tech & Biz | garden district

Southeast
Louisiana, High and dry: That's exactly how Bob and Sherry Bourg expect
to spend the 2009 storm season, now that their new hurricane-resistant home
has been installed on the shores of Lake Catherine.

Deltec, an Asheville, N.C., business, designs hurricane-resistant circular (technically, polygonal) homes and produces kits for assembly. The company trains contractors
in various locales to ensure that kits are assembled according to company standards.
Locals who follow "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" were introduced to the company when Ty Pennington and crew landed in town last spring and replaced the storm-and tornado-damaged home of a Westwego first responder and his extended family using a Deltec product.

A sales brochure for Deltec Homes says "round for a reason".

Dale and Carolyn Medley of Pass Christian now understand the reason, courtesy of Hurricane Katrina. The couple's unusual home withstood the storm's fury.

"We've had several people come by and look at it since the storm," said Dale Medley, while giving a tour of his unusually-shaped home.

The round house in Timber Ridge proved its worth in Katrina.

"My son's an architect and he advised that a round house, he explained to me, that the wind goes around it and it's safer with high winds than a square house," said Carolyn Medley.

Dozens of nearby houses in the Timber Ridge subdivision gave way to Katrina's wind and water. The Medley home survived the storm's wind with very little damage.

Deltec helped build home for Westwego couple and rebuild a church: banding
together with Extreme Makeover Home Edition and construction crews from around the country for 7-day rebuild of the New Orleans area home and a church damaged by Hurricane Katrina and tornadoes.

For more information visit http://www.DeltecHomes.com/

Notice the homebuilding seminars also on the site.

Grand Isle 'Round House' Post-Katrina, a survivor.

See you in a couple of weeks. Gone to Taos!

René O'Deay