What were they thinking?
I've wondered that a lot myself in the past two days. Seems like New Orleans' current location is the worst place for a metropolitan area. However I mentioned this to my dad last night on the phone and he said that the city has sunk quite a bit over the years and also in the 18th century it's very likely that the settlers of N.O. simply did not know they were below sea level. Thank God the city dodged the bullet this time, though it sounds like things will still be quite a mess down there. I hope that this storm leads to better evacuation procedures, shelters, and levee/pumping systems.