Unlike most people, I really hate it when I’m right correct, for my predictions are usually on the worst-case-they-will-never-really-happen scale. Obviously New Orleans is in for it again, as the levee holding back the Industrial Canal has breached (although the Mayor of New Orleans refuses to use that word), and the Ninth Quarter is underwater once again. Millions of dollars and countless hours of effort to repair these levees….a complete waste. (Update: The floodwaters reportedly stand at waistlevel and are rising.)
Now, I do realize that a number of folks hold Nawlins very close to their hearts, but really, what is the logic in rebuilding a city that lies under sea level? Hurricanes season returns every year, and one must never underestimate the sheer force of flowing water flowing from storms spanning more surface area than most inland states. Despite all the worldly sophistication and advanced engineering techniques, one cannot ignore the brutality of common sense. It is not possible to build levees strong enough to withstand the the associated twin forces of water power and gravity.
While I understand the historic value and nostalgia associated with the Big Easy, can we afford to quite literally bail out New Orleans, when it is a virtual certainty that another crisis will destroy all efforts. The city is a major port of trade between us and Latin America, yes, but how many other cities and government-funded programs can be neglected at the expense of what is essentially a futile effort? What about Social Security and the health-care crisis, for fuck’s sake?
All the money in the government’s hands cannot stop the inevitable, and we simply cannot keep the waters back forever. The levees constructed to protect the city have also weakened it substantially, since the redirection of nature’s whim has resulted in the erosion of what would be natural marshes. The coastine is disappearing, and New Orleans is part of that coastline. At what point will the American people realize the truth of the matter? Water covers three quarters of the Earth, and it’s going to overcome a bit more. Estimates were that last week, only 500 citizens remained in the city that was home to 500,000 just one month ago, so maybe this would be the cue to just cut our losses, rather than rebuild and face thousands of deaths from the next “big one.” In the grand scope of things, New Orleans and the federal government are fighting a losing battle on this one – and the Mayor is starting to appear much like this former Iraqi representative:
Crossposted at The Boileryard
4 comments
As much as I think back on my college and fraternity days and my voracious love of jazz, you are correct.
New Orleans has been around for at least 300 years, hasn’t it?
How many times has it been flooded like this? Not very many.
How many times has it been flooded since 1900 (the levees were finished in, I believe, 1927)? None.
Sure, the water sometimes gets a foot deep in certain spots after a big rainstorm… but the pumps suck it dry overnight. All that rain just cleans up the streets a little.
The problem with Nawlins isn’t its elevation, or lack thereof, it’s the idiots who live there who keep voting for idiots to run it. One factoid that no one really seems to think about is that at least 40% of the people who were evacuated out of state, and who lost everything and have nothing to go back to, don’t plan to return to the city to live. What will that do to the voting patterns? After all, many of these people were the ones the Democrats could aways send a bus for on Election Day… just not for the hurricane.
Get rid of Nagin (and Blanco). Clean out the upper echelons of the NOPD and the city administration. Get rid of the city payroll tax and start offering incentives for manufacturing and knowledge/information companies to locate there, so the middle class will once again want to live and work in the city.
Why would anyone abandon New Orleans when it really is simple to just FIX it? Of course, as Clauswitz said, the simplest things are often the most difficult to accomplish.
Simple for the rest of the U.S. to supply the zillions of tax dollars, eh? That’s the only way it would forseeably get “fixed.”
I think we have far too much confidence in our abilities to create the perfect levee system or hurricane wall. Especially when idiot humans maintain and repair these systems. The human race revels in its arrogance.
I lived in Nawlins for a number of years and in the entire time, experienced the effects of 1 hurricane{it left someone’s screen door in my passageway and tossed a friend’s pecan tree onto his neighbor’s roof} and 3 feet of flooding after one thunderstorm, but never anything nearly as fierce as the ongoing mayhem.
Recent events have shown that I was pretty damn lucky, all in all.
NOLA’s residents have always been laid back, complacent, “3rd World” types, like if it ain’t happenin’ now, why worry about it? Tne Levee Board, instead of being composed of engineers like it should’ve been, consisted of businessman members of the Ol’ Boy Network, as has always been the case in all important positions in the Crescent City.
As for the politicians, well, I’ve always said that a city gets what a city votes for. When they do rebuild, and they will rebuild no matter what logic dictates, there’s maybe a 25-75 chance that they’ll have learned something.
New Orleans and its people are like no others in the United States.