The death of New Orleans

That phrase is what Sedosi used over at his blog to describe the utter holocaust that is the city of New orleans. I believe the news of the death of New Orleans is exaggerated, but perhaps not by much. New Orleans IS a disaster rivalling that of the 1900 Hurricane that struck Galveston. That event was a turning point in many ways. It lead to the formation of the National Weather service that we know today. It also lead to the complete rebuilding of Galveston. The Galveston we know today is very different from the Galveston of the 1900 event. A committee led by Alfred Nobel was formed to address what could be done to prevent such a disaster in the future. One salient point that came out of that investigation should be seriously considered for the future New Orleans. Galveston Island was only inches above sea level at the time of the 1900 Hurricane, when the storm surge hit, Galveston was 19-20 feet underwater. The decision was made to change that. The entire city was built up to several feet above sea level. and a concrete lined seawall was built to the height of the storm surge of the 1900 storm.

New Orleans already has a network of dikes and levees to hold back the water, but of course these cut both ways as we are seeing now. When the dikes fail, the whole city is innundated. The Galveston seawall was not intended to hold back millions of gallons of water forever, it was intended to hold back the storm surge until the storm passed. The only way to prevent a repeat of this magnitude is to raise as much of the city above sea level as possible. There will always be parts of the city that are impossible to raise. Downtown, with it's buildings, is a lost cause unless the city is willing to demolish them and rebuid Downtown. The French Quarter with it's historic buildings MIGHT be possible, but cost prohibitive. But the real problem is the residential areas, and since they are all pretty much complete losses now anyway, NOW is an excellent time to do what needs to be done. RAISE NEW ORLEANS. PUT ALL EVACUATION ROUTES WELL ABOVE SEA LEVEL.