The Future of New Orleans

Greg Ransom blogged New Orleans is a city below sea level — and dropping. The Gulf of Mexico is closing in on New Orleans — and will become one with the city before the end of the century. Will government repeat the follies of the past and make another Katrina-like disaster inevitable down the road? My guess is that it will. Look simply what it has already done. It has channeled the Mississippi in such a fashion that the coast line is giving way to the Gulf. It has constructed levies that were destine to break in the face of expected storms. It has constructed low income housing and given poor folks public assistance in a form which encouraged them to live in a city which was little other than a disaster waiting to happen.

Lest we repeat the mistakes of the past, it is important to be honest about how the Katrina disaster in New Orleans is as much a man-made disaster as it is a natural one.

For evidence see the two pictures on Greg's post

Michael Williams blogged We need to do everything we can to rescue people still trapped in that annihilated city, but beyond that I think it's time to face facts: New Orleans should be almost entirely abandoned. Let everyone collect their insurance checks and spend their money how they will, but I don't think I single dollar of public money should be spent rebuilding a coastal city that's 80% below sea level. That's just insane. Experts had been predicting this distaster for decades, and now that it's finally come it's time to cut our losses and pull out. No tax dollars should be spent rebuilding or repairing any structure less than one foot above the high water mark.

I agree completely. As I said here "It is foolish to try to protect a large city that is 10 to 15 feet below sea level with levees on all sides. What if the hurricane had come right over New Orleans, rather than taking the jig to the east, and dumped all the rain in the city. It still would have been flooded, even if the levees had held. If the city is to be rebuilt, it should be rebuilt somewhere else."

Nicole Gelinas has an article in City Journal in which she points out that New Orleans was collapsing before Katrina, and the job of reconstruction will be nearly impossible. We need to help the survivors rebuild, but somewhere else.

I agree completely, as I indicated here

The WaPo has an article explaining why most ex-residents won't bother waiting around.