New Orleans flooding question

[Nelson Atwell]

Here in OKC the only big hills are the city dumps. Perhaps New Orleans could start building the levees out of the city's trash. In a couple of hundred years, there could be a small range of low-lying hills built around the city which would completely shield it from the biggest waves that could be tossed at it.

 

[Rich Stern]

And to rub salt in the wound: All of us subsidize the insurance of a disaster like this via the National Flood Insurance program, one of many "Great Society" legacies of the Lyndon Johnson era. When they rebuild New Orleans with the same brain-dead flood protection scheme (none), we get to insure it with tax dollars. Again.



My heart goes out to the people in the gulf region. I hope they'll forgive me if I suggest that they should not rebuild in exactly the same way, just so our kids and grandkids can avoid multi-billion dollar insurance settlements every time a hurricane does what it is supposed to do.

 

[Joey Hedrick]

If the recent trends continue, and unless a monumental effort is undertaken to ensure the safety of the city, New Orleans will eventually need to be abandoned. It's surrounded by water that's higher than the city itself, it's sinking, and they've been relying on a few levees and pure luck to avoid complete disaster for decades. Nature will always win, and it's constantly upping the ante. If this were some run-of-the-mill average city, it'd be a no-brainer to suggest, you know....moving....but with it being such a unique place, it's going to be very difficult for anyone to make such a suggestion. I fear it's going to take a few more of these massive disasters for anything to change.

 

[Nelson Atwell]

If another hurricane hits this area while it is already flooded, that city is toast. This hurricane season is still going to be around until November.