Posted on 02/02/2006 10:08:40 AM PST by ncountylee
In the chaos that followed the worst natural disaster in American history, a forensic investigation has been taking place to find out what went wrong and why.
The BBC's Horizon programme has spoken to the scientists who are now confronting the real possibility that New Orleans may be the first of many cities worldwide to face extinction.
Modern day New Orleans was a city that defied the odds. Built on a mosquito infested swamp squashed between two vast bodies of water in what is essentially a bowl, its very existence seemed proof of the triumph of engineering over nature.
But on the 29 August 2005 New Orleans took a direct hit from Hurricane Katrina and overnight was turned into a Venice from hell.
The delicate flood system in New Orleans, that so many relied on to protect them was actually, year on year, adding to the risk of a catastrophe in the city.
Coastal Geologist Shea Penland from the University of New Orleans knows every inlet, every cove and every stretch of marsh that surrounds New Orleans.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Sounds like you know a little about that unique New Orleans perspective.
I'd bet that most of the folks who wanna let NOLA go back to the swamp never danced with those oil-money Texas beauties at three in the morning at Jimmy's with Marcia Ball just pounding the keys and the whole place is jumpin' and two more days of Jazzfest to go.
It can get in your blood.
So you want to damage the Israeli economy, and destroy much of the Netherlands? Any other groups you don't like?
You're right about alot of things. And I'm not going to assume the position of defending everything New Orleans ever was and is.
But it's still there. Alot of neighborhoods aren't. Maybe some of them shouldn't get rebuilt. But you're not going to tear down the office buildings in the CBD, or the uptown mansions, or Tulane University, and you need a port somewhere and you need to service the gulf oil and fishing industries and that's always gonna be right up close to the water and it's in a hurricane zone and you can't change that.
So I'm finding a real shortage of good ideas about fixing and helping and I'm fresh out myself, but I know that letting New Orleans go back to the swamp is not a viable one.
So we're really talking, whether we know it or not, about how much money and where does it come from.
It's not the first time G-d took down a city for the sin within it.
I see no need to spend my money to rebuild what G-d decided to destroy. He's the boss of me, right?
1) Triage - figure out the viable parts and the parts that should not be reclaimed.
2) - built true Cat 3 protection. Cat 5 I think is not viable, because Cat 5 is open-ended. Rebuild a much smaller NOLA.
Start the process of creating a port up where the Atchafalaya diverts off the Mississippi, with a canal that goes to the Gulf. Build rail links between NOLA and that port. Over the next 50 years, development will gradually shift to that new port.
I don't want to sound mean, and I've been through the amazing Hugo, but New Orleans is the blueprint for the paradise that can come about without God, the secular progressive worker's paradise. These monstrous schemes always fail soon or late. The hurricane just hastened the inevitable. That said, I wish no malice to those who have been battered by the forces of nature. A new attitude, along with reinforced levees, may help the city to revive. The culture of envy must end.
Just out of curiosity, were the houses in Oklahoma destroyed by wildfires a couple months ago taken down because of the sin within them?
Hell, I never came anywhere near doing anything THAT cool in NOLA and it's in my blood. I bet you've got some stories.
Shall we conclude that Slidell, Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, and Biloxi were also "taken down" for the "sin within"?
Seems not to have been nearly as thorough a job as back in the old days of Sodom etc. Very few sinners actually died.
Also, no need to spend money to make well those who the A******y decided to sicken. No need to hostpitalize the injured, feed the starving, or, for that matter, punish the criminals.
Oh, I get it. You're joking, right?
In case you haven't noticed ports have become highly automated operations directly employing few people compared to, say, 100 years ago; New Orleans began as a port, but before Katrina only a tiny, tiny fraction of the population was either working for the port or working to support the people of the port.
You don't need a metropolis to operate the Port of New Orleans.
Spoken like a true knuckle-dragging moron. Tell me, does stupidity hurt?
"So we're really talking, whether we know it or not, about how much money and where does it come from."
Yep, that's exactly correct, and my point is just that NO cannot nor will it be what it was before the hurricane. So, why not use a little common sense and a little less emotion and find a reasonable answer.
I do not support bull-dozing, etc. What I do support is a clear, precise plan that makes the best out of what is left. The port is necessary, but modern ports do not require great numbers of people to run them. What is the point of rebuilding levees and canals if a new improved port can be constructed?
And, if the office buildings are not required due to a diminished population and lack of business, then why would a business choose to remain in NO?
I could give a flip about the mansions, if the owners can maintain them and they are not subject to flooding, then so what?
The point here is that something approaching sanity, on both side here needs to be found and acted upon. Pouring billions and billions of dollars into rebuilding is a fool's game IMO.
Yes. I'm joking. I'm agnostic. I simply tire of all the justifications for throwing good money after bad unless there is some sincerety in the process.
The uninformed carping of many around FR on this issue is just that; uninformed carping. I've just learned to ignore it. You cannot bring reason into their life, no matter how much you try, and New Orleans, along with the rest of the Gulf Coast, is going to survive this whether they want it to or not. So what is the point? Just crack an Abita, put on some Bosoleil, and ignore these a**holes.
Well said. Too bad they don't spend time showing the hard work being done here either in the SWLA area. We could sway the thinking of a lot of people if they would talk to Randy Roach, the Lake Charles mayor or any of the local leaders here. They are the anti-Nagin.
"Somebody needs to tell the mayor of Chocolate City to get the chocolate chips off their butts and stop waiting for the caramels to rebuild their houses and the vanilla's to pay for them."
The chocolate chips are to busy living in nice hotels all over the US, or on cruise ships at government expense.
They will chocolate milk this as long as they can.
Many poeple with deep feelings for and strong connections to the city hope it comes back smaller, and different, and better. That is my hope.
And thanks for being a voice of reason.
If someone was thinking in Baton Rouge we would get some of these servicemen on National tv. Also get people like Roach on there too.
Again it amazes me that in area that actually produced Catholics and Catholic politicians that were actually pro life(landrieus being an exception she aint even Catholic now I hear) and a pretty good conservative hard working conservative class of people that they get dished. Heck I even stick up for some ninth ward folks it wasnt all welfare idiots. Again people need to realize that there was more to NOLA and beyond than their experience on Bourbon Street and Girls gone wild videos they view
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.