It's been a long time since a real live storm surging Cat 4 or 5 rolled through. The damage effects increase exponetially as you move up the scale. Too many near misses conditioned people to think it's hype.
Then the big one comes and educates another generation.
Galveston was hit in 1900 and it still hasn't recovered. Houston took it from Galveston. Baton Rouge is going to take it from NO.
They probably should go even further NW than Baton Rouge.
In addition to the danger from flooding, New Orleans also faces the threat of losing the Mississippi channel to the Atchafalaya. Moving the city now close to the point where the Atchafalaya branches off will better-position the city for the day when that happens. And the Corps should go ahead and build a separate canal that parallels that stream so they don't have to levee it and create the subsidence problems that levees caused around the current channel.