Many residents, though, wonder what "current value" will mean -- particularly after the anxiety surrounding the buyout proposal.
"This is going to be embraced in some areas and not in others," said William W. Walker, executive director of Mississippi's Department of Marine Resources, which worked with the corps. He said residents of Pecan, a small community in Jackson County in the southeastern part of the state, had already agreed to sell their properties en masse.
"We're trying to put in place something that is open-ended. It's going to be a long-term project," Walker said.
The buyout proposal is one part of the corps plan, which would also restore barrier islands that serve as the front line of defense, build a levee alongside a coastal railroad, add storm-surge gates to bay openings and build levees around flood-prone areas.
Though environmental restoration and structural measures could somewhat reduce risk from future storms, Walker said, they would not be able to protect homes on low-lying marshlands.
"These areas probably should not have been developed in the first place," he said. "It's not practical to ask the federal government to keep rebuilding and repairing after repetitive floods." Duke shoreline expert Pilkey, who watched Mississippi residents rebuild after Hurricane Camille hit in 1969, said that he used to believe all it would take to get people to move from the coast would be another severe hurricane.
If Katrina hadn't convinced people to clear out, he said, nothing would.
"Frankly," he said, "I think a buyout is going to have to be more or less crammed down people's throats."
Tommy Kidd, who grew up in Bay St. Louis, has finished rebuilding his vinyl-sided home on a low-lying lot next to a canal. The ruddy 68-year-old says that nothing -- not even Katrina washing 28 feet of muddy slop up to his ceiling -- could persuade him to give up his land. Where else, he asked, could he stand on his back deck and net shrimp or crabs for dinner?
"Look," said Kidd as he opened his back door, stepped onto his porch and gazed at the water flowing gently around his lot. "This is paradise. You can't destroy what it means to live in the interest of safety."
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jenny.jarvie@latimes.com
