Posted on 08/30/2005 3:53:30 PM PDT by Dont Mention the War
On the southern fringe of New Orleans' City Park there is a live oak with a branch that dips low, goes briefly underground, and comes up the other side still thriving.
It's ancient and gnarled, this tree, and filtered sunglight slants through its crown at dusk. It's a sublime thing.
When we talk about these majestic items that dot New Orleans' landscape we say, "is," but we may mean, "was." The reports are still scattered, the news from the ground still incomplete, but Hurricane Katrina may have annihilated New Orleans.
It looks bad to everyone. "It's impossible for us to say how many structures can be salvaged," Gov. Kathleen Blanco said late Tuesday. But can the birthplace of jazz truly be wiped from the face of the earth?
New Orleans may yet surprise. Too often the city is written off as a whiskey nirvana, where one guzzles Pimms cups at Napoleon House in the French Quarter at night, and eggs and grits at the Camellia Grill in the Riverbend at sunrise.
In truth, however, New Orleans is as sublime as it is Rabelaisian. For example - and this is a thing few tourists know - the French Quarter, home of Bourbon Street and jazz and possessor of a global reputation for parties, is in fact a National Park. Now and then, through the spokes of a horse-drawn carriage taking honeymooners up Royal Street, one can spot the distinctive, "Smokey," hat of a park ranger telling a more earnest visitor some genuine history.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
And I've seen dumber.
So sorry to hear it, and sad for all who've been hurt by this...
Some experts believe live oaks are a separate species, but even those who don't will concede they're an ecotype that's suited to a specific region, generally south of Zone 7.
Anyway, decal's right...they are evergreen, not losing their leaves until new growth emerges in the spring, and thus "live" all winter when most oaks are dormant.
Perhaps not to you, but they sure as hell have impressed the American Civilian Engineering Society, which rates it as one of the seven modern wonders of the world. The Dutch have proven that they can create a rich, prosperous country protected by their system of dikes.
No Dyke has EVER been subject to the the rainfall and sustained winds of major tropical systems.
They weren't designed to protect against major tropical systems. That said, the North Atlantic and North Sea present a formidable challenge in terms of storms and winds. The 1953 North Sea Flood killed 1,835 people and forced the evacuation of 70,000 more. Ten thousand animals drowned, and 4,500 buildings were destroyed. Floods covered 9% of Dutch agricultural land, and sea water inundated 2,000 km² of polders. A combination of a high spring tide and a severe European windstorm caused a tidal surge of the North Sea up to 3.36 m which overwhelmed sea defences and caused extensive flooding.
A European windstorm is a severe cyclonic storm that tracks across the North Atlantic towards north-west Europe in the winter months. These storms usually track over the north coast of Scotland towards Norway but can veer south to affect other countries including Ireland, England, Wales, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Germany. As these storms can generate hurricane-force winds, they are sometimes referred to as hurricanes, even though very few originate as tropical cyclones.
The bottom line is that the Dutch have shown us that it is possible to cope with the sea and storms even if the land is below sea level.
New Orleans will be rebuilt better and bigger. Count on it. Are you a betting man?
"Will New Orleans Survive?"
Indianola, Texas, didn't.
It was the second-busiest port in Texas until it was wiped out by hurricanes in 1875 and 1886. About 40 people live there now.
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/II/hvi11.html
That is absolutely correct.
I have lived in many places in the world, but I have never enjoyed the company of people so much as that of native Galveston Islanders whose families have been there since before the 1900 Storm. They are the salt of the earth. I didn't live there, but my sister did for a number of years.
Sometimes it's best to accept basic hydrology.
Are you saying that NO could not be protected from another hurricane like Katrina? Do you have some background in this area?
I think there are several different NO "rebuilding" questions.
1. The port, industries, oil & gas facilities...oh, yeah...that will all be rebuilt/repaired in the same places and in record time, because that will be driven by no-nonsense economic forces and decision-makers.
2. "The City"...the music, party, food, tourism mecca...likely. There (again) is some serious $$ to be made by keeping the Good Times Rolling. We can, however, expect lengthy and expensive court battles between "rebuilders" and maniacal "historical preservationists."
3. The central residential areas? I doubt it strongly. Most of any urban rebuilding "grant money" (or whatever they call it) will be squandered by the entrenched corrupt governments of NO and LA. How many of those quaint old wood-frame homes (handed down generation to generation) now underwater were insured?
Rebuild 'em all? There will be cries to guarantee "affordable housing"..an impossible task. More than likely those neighborhoods will be leveled, then rebuilt to code,(and above sea level) and "gentrified."
The more affluent suburbs...who knows? Costs, insurance, having to flee your home in terror might keep more than a few of the 1-million+ refugees from ever coming back. And the footage of looting in the streets is not helping the general city image to those who are in NO just for a good job and not because they were born & raised there.
I have visited NO several times and enjoyed its seedy splendor. I sadly think THAT city is gone forever.
The smug, callow arrogance on display makes me sick. I wonder if the Iowan expresses the same condescending smugness to his neighbors who have been victims of tornadoes. After all, "why would anyone build a house in an area where you know tornadoes are going to hit?" Duh.
Now that you put it that way, the U.N. might then designate it a "World Heritage Site", prohibiting any re-building. (/tinfoil hat)
"Will New Orleans survive?"
In some form, but at the same exact location?
I would hope not!
"As it exists now, mostly below sea-level? "
Only if the citizens and our Gov. Org. are even stupider than I think they are!
"Should it?"
Survive? Yes, old area as an industrial park servicing the port and refineries.
The new and "rebuilt" "City Center" and all residential should be moved to higher ground!
"Should the taxpayers be on the hook for it?"
Not really, but they will be!
And virtually every existing plot of land will be rebuilt, with FEMA backed low interest loans and grants.
I survived a flood several years ago, the looting will be several times what gets reported, scams and rip-off's will abound, false insurance claims will outstrip honest appraisals, with some insurance companies doing their own rip-off's!
Property OWNERS will come out fairly well in the end, RENTERS are SCR**D!
Natural disaster, followed by civil insurrection (looting), insurance will not cover as much as many people assume.
It will be years before this area recovers, and the cost WILL be passed on to the entire country, in many forms.
I know the locals are loathe to hear it, but NOLA as we know it will never be rebuilt.
It's too irresponsible to invest so heavily in a doomed topography.
Yes.. the port will be active as ever - and probably wider. But the idea that you'll have a near million folk in a depression surrounded by water will never fly from the "wipe the slate clean" perspective we have today.
Actually, what happens now it the house is jacked up, then a lower story is built under it, raising the living area about ten feet.
The standards for this require that the new floor's use be restricted to laundry room and garage.
In reality, partitions and living space construction begins about five seconds after the last inspector leaves!
Cheap Gov. Org. loans and "Grants", quickly followed by illegal "Apartment for rent" ads.
Survived a flood several years, so I have seen it for myself.
"once-in-a-lifteme natural disaster"?
Um, how long is a life-time?
This could be repeated at any time, even in the next couple of weeks!
Rebuild, but only on higher ground!
Some years ago the flood water from a "100 year rain event" stopped right at the edge of my property, leaving me dry and relieved.
The VERY NEXT YEAR I lost everything I owned, after it spent two weeks under eight feet of water!
I have never recovered financially, despite a token "settlement" due to that particular flood having been quite preventable.
"The fundamental purpose of the government to protect the lives and property of US citizens? Isn't New Orleans part of the United States? "
Since when?
The fundamental purpose of government is to carry out those task required for our nation interest which are to large in scope for local agencies to successfully complete!
Those duties include the pursuit of international treaties and war, the interstate highway system, reasonable national standards for weights and measures, etc.
Most of what passes for powers granted to our "National Government" is NOT supported by our constitution at all!
Your statement is a CONSERVATIVE one?
So much for limited government!
You bring in a huge barge and scoop-shovel.
You dig dirt out and pile it up where you need it, then pump out the water.
I wonder how many illegals will be welcomed to the disaster area to "do the work Americans won't do"?
I wonder how many illegals already in those areas will flee to dryer and more immediately prosperous locales?
That is my vote!
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