You mean drive in the dirt and compact it, and create a plateau? That is interesting, and was done with part of a peninsula near Oakland airport, where my brother lives. But they had to wait 15 years to build, because even with compaction, it takes some time for subsidence to subside. The planted trees however at the beginning of the 15 year wait, so they were nice and mature when building started. How clever. Maybe with new technologies, one does not have to wait.
Yes, that's basically what I have in mind. What I'm saying is that there is exceedingly little reason to rush to rebuild the slums, which covered a considerable portion of the low lying areas. They can get the valuable parts of the city up and running within 6 months to a year easily. The rest can be carefully reengineered to end the flood threat at anywhere near this magnitude.
We have the capability to build in the ocean shallows now if we want. It's being done in Holland, Japan, Hong Kong, and to a smaller scale in other places. We should seize the moment and turn this tragedy into an opportunity to rebuild New Orleans the way it would be if it were just built today, and today we could build it in a way to withstand hurricanes just as well as any other city on the Gulf (keep in mind that the entire northern Gulf coast is subsiding, not just New Orleans).
Get the Port and the riverside stretch from Uptown to Bywater up and running. The poor, huddled masses will end up resettling in Houston and elsewhere regardless (just wait, most won't go back). The surrounding parishes have more than enough of labor base to support the remnant of New Orleans, and much of the area that's flooded wasn't contributing much anyhow (except to welfare rolls..) Then raise the marshes to 5 feet above sea level, and then raise the riverside as well in sections (jack up the buildings, etc).
If that were done, it'd be 1000 years or more before the city might again be in the state it is today.
Hong Kong, Holland, Japan etc don't get cat 4 and 5 hurricanes (well maybe Hong Kong does, I don't know), and Japan and Hong Kong are not under sea level, and there is a direct line to higher ground. NO would still be an island.