Last week there was an interesting program on the Science Channel concerning the advancing science of hurricane prediction. It must have been produced a year or two ago, because it focused on
what would most likely happen to New Orleans if a catagory 4 or 5 hurricane ever hit the city. The experts most certainly
did realize that those levies would not hold back the resulting storm surge! The narrative on this program specifically alluded to those doubts and expectations of levy failure. This program made it very clear that the city lies below sea level and that thousands of lives would/could be lost if and when a powerful hurricane strikes New Orleans. The program even described the "perfect" trajectory in which a hurricane would slam New Orleans while moving Northwest - thus creating the maximum storm surge and flooding every portion of the city below sea level.
A poster on quatloos/ranting and raving - "Born2Win" - wrote about that same television program:
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It was an intense experience of 20/20 hindsight focused by a program that demonstrated 20/20 foresight when it was first produced. It is absolutely ridiculous for that city to have been built in that location in the first place. Now they are contemplating rebuilding it???!!! Common sense would indicate that the insurance and charitable contributions would best be used to relocate people to safer ground. But NOOOOOOO. They are going to continue to defy nature by rebuilding in that place - below sea level. How idiotic. It seems more than obvious that the sea has reclaimed that ground. Let's pick up the pieces and move inland to a more sensible location, people.
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I concur. And I agree with David Merrill:
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Building New Orleans was stupid. Rebuilding a city below sea level is insane. I know it sounds cold and that New Orleans was a unique and cultural pearl of beauty. But physics is physics. The uphill battle of keeping New Orleans dry has failed and BUSH's promise to rebuild her may very well be an empty promise to save face. I think my opinion is quite pragmatic...
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I read some quote by GWB recently on another site/blog to the effect that "we had no idea those levies would fail" - NONSENSE!!! That program about hurricane prediction technologies was a RE-RUN!!! And it focused on New Orleans SPECIFICALLY.
But I would
hate to the Pres of the USA right now. Damned if ya do... damned if ya don't. If he supports rebuilding there, we and (hopefully) many others possessed of common sense will dub him "stupid" yet again ... and if he speaks out against it, some hue and cry will arise from the idiots who consider New Orleans some cultural icon that must be replaced (groan). The sea has reclaimed it's territory. Clean away the debris and try to referbish the wetlands. That same program, BTW, made another lucid point about the wide stretch of wetlands that
used to act as a hurricane buffer zone for the Mississippi and Alabama coastlines.
The only realistic solution would be the refusal of sensible people to return and occupy that "land". If I owned property there right now, I'd take whatever insurance money and FEMA funds that came to me and purchase a home and/or property inland. If people would simply vote with their FEET, the money would follow.