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Those floodwalls were remarkably light and narrow. For an earthen dam, they were thin. Such light construction demands exacting quality control. Far better to build nice wide levies that can be built to an achievable standard. If this means 300 ft. of property has to be condemned on either side of the canal, I don't have a problem with that. That is legitimate public use.

That said, the levies did what they were designed to do, and no more. If greater protection is required in the future, some land is going to have to be lost.

If this means 300 ft. of property has to be condemned on either side of the canal,I don't have a problem with that. That is legitimate public use.

Not if it displaces minorities, then it's overbearing racist government action.

"If greater protection is required in the future, some land is going to have to be lost."

Well, there should certainly be no problem acquiring the necessary right-of-way now.

I wonder, when all is finally sifted out, whether it won't turn out that the levee failures were due to burrowing nutria.

If this means 300 ft. of property has to be condemned on either side of the canal, I don't have a problem with that.

One thing I don't understand is why the canal is there in the first place. Apparently the neighborhoods where flooding began are a sufficient distance from Lake Pontchartrain. But then this safety margin is erased by having a canal go from the lake to a point where only a narrow levee protects the whole city.

"300 ft. of property has to be condemned on either side of the canal"

My concern pretty much. However if you take 300 feet on either side of the levee there is not much of a canal left. One of the most expensive parts of public works projects is taking of land through eminent domain. In KELO the city is taking the land to get more taxes. When you take land for roads, bridges and levees you are shrinking the tax base and getting people POed. I'm sure this had to be a consideration.

http://www.nola.com/hurricane/images/nolalevees_jpg.jpg

Looking at the above map you can see that it is likely that thousands of parcels of private property would have to be given up to build nice thick "Dutch" levees.

That is the minimum. The real problem is no matter how good the levee the chance of a small break and the catastrophe that a small break creates MANDATES redundant systems. This requires massive land taken off the tax rolls.

This is the real problem faced in NOLA (after people finally figure that what got wet must come down.) The proper outcome is a whole new land use map.