The Federal government did not destroy your city.
The failure of the levees was a matter of time. They were only built to withstand a Cat 3 storm. Katrina was a Cat 5 until it hit land. When it hit NO, it was a Cat 3/4.
The first Cat 4 or Cat 5 storm to come along would have done the same thing--destroyed the levees.
The Federal government, meaning the rest of us, paid good money over many years to build and to maintain those levees. It is not our fault that the corruption of Louisiana politicians diverted this money.
After all of the years of planning for a disaster that everyone knew would happen sooner or later, it is particularly repugnant to see what happened due to the failure of local and state officials in Louisiana.And even more repugnant to see that no responsibility is taken by them-it is all the fault of the Federal government and the rest of America.
We know now without a doubt the extent of the flood plain once the levees are breached. So, don't build there!
The port is OK, downtown is OK, and the French quarter is OK. A few neighborhoods are goners. They are uninhabitable anyway. They need to be bulldozed and parkland built over them. New housing, which is up to code and not substandard like most of the housing that was lost in NO, should be built on higher ground farther out from the city.It's not like some irreplaceable architectural gems have been lost.
That's the only thing that makes any sense.
Otherwise, feel free to blame everyone else and then proceed to rebuild in place---with your money.
It was supposed to withstand cat 3. When Katrina hit NO it was less than cat 3. The levees should have held, if they were built right.The feds built them and were supposed to oversee maintenance. They didn't and they failed.