It's going to take decades, plural, to replace those homes, which is not encouraging.

The tax base will shift more to where they have their residences, instead of where they work. That's where they will pay their property taxes, buy their groceries, buy their cars.

The problem is more basic than 'where are the people?' The problem is the people don't have anywhere to live.

There's no way you could spin that into good news.

It's been very frustrating to many private-sector businesses: They know there are people out there who don't have jobs, but when they go and offer them positions, people say they are not ready to work yet. People are looking at their FEMA checks and their housing allotment and their unemployment benefits and they are saying, 'Hey, I am going to wait awhile.' They are getting enough assistance that they don't need to go back to work.

It's probably one of the few last best hopes out there for people whose homes were flooded, and had no flood insurance. Without this kind of help, there's a very large number of people who are just sunk.