You've known for several years that the US is going through a natural cycle of increased hurricanes.
You should have been investigating why the elected officials of New Orleans didn't insist that each New Orleans residence had to have enough lifeboats to save its inhabitants.
Owners of buildings should have been required, by the New Orleans housing code, to provide lifeboats for their tenants.
According to a pre-Katrina web page, New Orleans could not be saved from itself.
You might have saved some lives, if you had done real reporting instead of Bush-bashing.
Most of the floods of the 20th century have been due to sustained periods of heavy rainfall and hurricanes. Yet, as beneficial as this system is to the city, inevitably it will spell New Orleans' doom.The levee system that has been built along the river, coupled with the canal system to keep the interior of the city dry, prevent the land from being replenished by the annual spring floods. As a result, the land will continue to sink until eventually there will be nothing to stop the waters of the Gulf to rush back upon the fragile land.
In addition, the fresh water that is pumped into the brackish wetlands surrounding the city is creating an ecological disaster. When the Bonnie Carre Spillway is used in order to spare the city of New Orleans from floods, the consequences to the coastal estuary system is profound. As a result, in order to save itself from the waters surrounding it, the city of New Orleans is slowly destroying its own environment.
The final death knoll of the city may very well come from the river itself. Scientists and environmentalists know that the Mississippi is trying to change its course that will bypass the city in favor of the shorter route to the Gulf through the Atchafalaya basin. So far, the Corps of Engineers has prevented the river from doing this. But, one day, it will happen, perhaps following a direct hit from a hurricane. As late summer and early fall approach every year (hurricane season), New Orleans stands with the threat that it will lose its own lifeline. No canal system and no levee system will prevent the disaster that will follow.
Excellent post.
How many people outside(or inside for that matter) Louisiana know this? How many pols are willing to admit it? BTAIM, New Orleans managed to come up with enough dough to build the Super Dome (which itself will have to be rebuilt). They COULD have spent that money shoring up the level system. What ought to be done is, of course, bring back New Orleans but with the understanding that whatever you do will be only a stopgap measure. By all means, restore the French Quarter etc, but keeping in mind that eventually NOLA will be like Brugge in Belgium, a museum city, by-passed by history. It happens.