Dean Agee, a developer from Michigan who bought scores of lots in the proposed buyout area and planned to build modular homes designed to stand up to Category 5 hurricanes, is fielding telephone calls from uneasy investors.
"Everyone is asking: 'What's this about the corps buying everybody out?' " he said. " 'Is this really a place where we should be investing?' "
Although a buyout would be voluntary, that doesn't stop those who want to remain from worrying that they could be the only ones left on their street. They fear their insurance rates could go up, and they wonder how local government would cope with a significant loss of tax money.
Opposition to a buyout, which would span Mississippi's three coastal counties, has been strongest in Hancock County, where more than 10,000 of the 17,000 homes are located. Bay St. Louis is the county seat.
New houses are being built across the low-lying neighborhoods behind downtown Bay St. Louis on former marshland curving along St. Louis Bay and the Jordan River. Roads are being repaved and sewage systems are being repaired.
In the two years since Katrina, the city has issued permits for 218 new residences, 1,382 repairs and 85 additions. With stricter building codes and flood-elevation rules, civic leaders say the town is on the verge of coming back bigger and better.
But not everyone wants to stay. Some residents say they can't help feeling vulnerable living on small lots that back up to bayous and canals.
On a recent afternoon, Wanda Sharpe, 59, stood at the bottom of her front steps, pointing a cigarette at the bayou that curves around her home. "It's senseless to be here," she said. "It's just a matter of time before another hurricane hits us."
Others are disheartened because their neighbors have not returned.
"It's so quiet here now," said Cathy Barbetta, 55, as her husband, Brian, grilled shrimp beside a desolate canal.
The Barbettas moved here from Louisiana five years ago. After Katrina, they poured all their savings into rebuilding their home. But few of their neighbors have come back, they say, and huge rats now roam the weed-choked lots.
"If they gave us the value of the house, we'd leave tomorrow," she said.
According to the corps, those who had already rebuilt would be offered the home's current value. Those who had not would be offered what it would have cost to rebuild, plus the current value of their lot, minus any insurance money they had received.
