What happens next? How long will it take for NO to return to viability? Does anyone have any inkling? This is so sad.
It will take months, maybe even years for NO to recover from this devastation, look at the mess from Andrew, some people won't bother to rebuild, plus, when building does restart there should be stricter building codes to deter another event like this or at least make it less painful. Next time people should heed the warning to evacuate to cut down on some of the people we've seen standing on roof tops. I understand that in some places people were told to stay in their homes period and personally if I was told to stay in my home and then it got flooded and a family member lost his/her life you can bet I'd be suing the whole damn state. I saw one gentleman on the news who lost his wife, literally, they were holding hands and he could not hold on anymore, his wife told him to let go and take care of the children and grandchildren, he let go, when the man was interviewed he was in shock. The mental anguish of this man's situation will probably never be taken care of, this man will live with his wife's words for the rest of his life.
Years. New Orleans may never again have as high a population as it did a week ago.
In 1900 Galveston had the highest population of any city in Texas and was one of the largest ports in the nation. After Galveston was wiped out by the 1900 hurricane most of the population moved 50 miles inland to Houston. It took over 50 years for the population of Galveston to grow larger than it was in 1900. Today, Galveston only has about 20,000 more people than it did 105 years ago.
It is very likely that 100 years from now, Baton Rouge will be a much larger city than New Orleans.