# How long will it be before NO is habitable?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-will-it-be-before-no-is-habitable/320614>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [September 8, 2005, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-will-it-be-before-no-is-habitable/320614 "2005-09-08T03:20:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2005, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-will-it-be-before-no-is-habitable/320614/1 "2005-09-08T03:20:00Z")

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In all the talk about NO and the hurricane and all of it, I haven’t seen any mention of how long they expect NO to be uninhabitable.

Does anyone know?

I know it’ll be years before most of the buildings can come back, but how long will it be until people can walk around freely without fear of diseases?

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2005, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-will-it-be-before-no-is-habitable/320614/2 "2005-09-08T03:30:17Z")

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In the news reports I’ve seen, people have been speculating - based on absolutely no good information - about every twenty seconds.

There is no possible one answer. Different areas in and around New Orleans will vary tremendously, depending on the amount of water they received, their level of contamination, when they will be pumped out, and what is left behind. And nobody knows what those answers are right now.

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**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2005, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-will-it-be-before-no-is-habitable/320614/3 "2005-09-08T06:39:41Z")

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Moved to IMHO.

- **xash**  
General Questions Moderator