ABout the residential in the flood zones, if you do that, then basically, you prevent the Irish Bayou from being rebuilt, and that would be a tragedy.
What New Orleans should do for floodzones is what Mobile is doing, and what Galveston did following the 1900 Hurricane (New Orleans actually did this in the Irish Bayou after Betsy), and this is require that in certain areas, all structures be built a certain level off the ground, either through stills or columns, and any old structures which can be rebuilt, should have to be raised onto platforms somehow (Galveston did do this successfully, as many of their stilted houses existed in 1900 and were not stilted)
Seattle also did something similar and it helped as well...
So?
and that would be a tragedy.
Why?