Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler OT: Katrina and World Support?

I guess... but it would have to be one heck of a levee system. Agree on restoring the wetlands but they won't stop a cat 5 storm surge.

As far as I know "old New Orleans" (the part everyone wants to visit) is already at or above sea level; it's the newer parts where everyone LIVES that were built on the less desireable land below sea level.

I'm talking about the parts which have to be rebuilt anyways; might as well rebuild above sea level. The French Quarter wouldn't be touched...

The biggest problem facing a rebuilt New Orleans is subsidence -- both of the levees and the land they protect, and of the wetlands. The very thing that makes New Orleans so important to our economy, besides tourism, happened to be a factor in its destruction.

The local oil and gas industries have been removing oil and gas deposits from beneath the Gulf coast for decades. It was believed that the deposits were deep enough not to affect the wetlands, but that belief has since been proven terribly wrong. The land under the wetlands has steadily subsided and removed New Orleans' and a large chunk of the Gulf coast's first line of defense against storms. Restoring wetlands, while not impossible, is made more difficult still by a changing climate and rising ocean levels.

Subsidence of dry land is also an issue. If New Orleans was filled with enough dirt to bring it above sea level, the weight of that dirt would accelerate the rate at which the land is already subsiding. It's a sticky issue.

I agree that the city should definitely be rebuilt, and that a modern levee system needs to be created. I was listening to NPR the other day and they were using the term "Disneyfication" while discussing the rebuilding process. People are saying there's a great risk of the rebuilt New Orleans being a "Main Street Disneyland" version of the former reality.

Lots of tough decision lie ahead for this city.

>>The local oil and gas industries have been removing oil and gas deposits from beneath the Gulf coast for decades.

Ouch. Good point. Normally that means the smart money buys land about 20 miles inland and waits patiently for it to become waterfront ;(

Fire, meet fuel...

Reader comments from a righty website:

"... [Y]ou have to consider that these people were essentially surplus. In other words, the least-functional 20% of the population of New Orleans has been eliminated. That obviously INCREASES the overall functionality of the New Orleans population."

A little Josef Mengele, anyone?

Bren R.

wow, that's pretty horrible that someone would even think that, much less say it.

Bren, Once again, "righty website?".

First, I cannot find the quote.

Second, It appears that IF the quote is present, it is from the forum conversation taking place, not from some established conservative, as you suggest with your link.

I am, as I type this, looking at a left wing blog in which people are calling for President Bush to be executed. If someone posted a link titled "What Democrats think", with this one gem I am reading, it would be wrong.

The quote: "All those who voted for Bush are responsible for Genocide in New Orleans, and should be tried and hanged"...

If we are going to have a reasonable conversation, then avoiding irresponsible "quotes" is necessary.

Let's give everybody a second shot at all of this

I see "Soon to be Hurricane" Ophelia is circling around in my back yard right now,(literaly)trying to decide which way to go.(the last four hour track is straight at ME, make My MREs Chicken, please) The computer models say she may hit Georgia, some say it may head for the Miami area. It just ain't certain.

The Wife said she heard on the news that some of the counties north of us have already canceled schools Hey!...it's only a storm right now.....and nobody has the slightest clue where it's heading

Ouch ... I heard yesterday that Ophelia could drop 15 inches of rain there, too. To all Florida residents, winters in Pennsylvania are starting to look pretty. We will make room for you... so come on up !

Great news, Craig; there are a lot of us here in Florida who will be starting up a caravan of vehicles real soon.....

....just as soon as the price of gasoline drops a bit

I just read a first-hand account by a few emergency medical workers who were attending a conference in New Orleans when Katrina hit. They were treated worse than cattle by local law enforcement. I couldn't believe what I was reading.

http://www.emsnetwork.org/artman/publish/article_18337.shtml