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When I lived there in 1978, I was joggin on the Mississippi levee. I looked up, and saw a Danish cargo ship go by, towering ten or twelve stories above me. I looked down at my house, about ten to fifteen feet below the levee. I said to myself, "What's wrong with this picture?" I completed MY evacuation plan in 1979, and the city has known about this possibility for over 100 years. Plans to reinforce the levees were cancelled in the 70's because of lawsuits filed by the Sierra Club over the Environmental Protection Act. Beyond that though, New Orleans proves you can't give people more money than they can steal or throw away. It doesn't matter how much Federal money they get, because every dime will be stolen.

---Plans to reinforce the levees were cancelled in the 70's because of lawsuits filed by the Sierra Club over the Environmental Protection Act.---

And it is a bunch of environmental groups that no one has heard of running most of our Department of the Interior through lawsuits in the very liberal federal court system.

Those of us who live on the Gulf Coast and have to deal with hurricanes need ideas on safeguarding our cities. You know, more plans, less finger pointing. In that spirit, please add your thoughts. Here's some of mine.

Cities in hurricane zones should establish sister city reciprocities.

For example NO gets hit, and the Jacksonville, FL police and fire departments send in back-up. It allows police, fire, and emergency workers in the "hit" city to protect their own families and deal with their own disasters while having protection in place.

In a "sister city" relationship, emergency workers are cross trained in each others cities. The calvary hits the streets running.

Rather than waiting for an "invitation" to a disaster (which is require to keep helpers from being vigilantes under the law) the sister city can make their own determination and deal police to police and emergency worker to emergency worker. Bureaucratic red tape is avoided. To stop the smooth flow of assistance, an incompetent mayor must call and refuse help.

In addition, churches in sister city communitas would be asked to made arrangement to put up each other's congregations. Not every person in a strange city, but a sister congregation. The smaller number of people needing assistance can be helped by NGO and government groups. The smaller numbers will take pressure off a strained system in the event of large scale disasters.

These plans can also be used for terror attacks.

Please add your ideas...