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 ...
NYC gets hurricanes, too... and quite possibly a massive eartgquake levelling towers that were mostly built in the 1930s. (WTC was among the newest NYC towers.)
Do you remember what happenned on Sept. 11, 2001? Big event in the Northeast, as I recall.
Maybe they'll do it the Bllomberg way, and build a giant monument to Green House gasses.
True, but you use statistical data and come up with what is most likely. The USG and insurance companies use such data to rate flood plains and risk. Nothing in this life is guaranteed. Lighting can strike twice in the same place, but it is highly unlikely. San Francisco is still waiting for the big one.
Rebuild, but only on higher ground!
Rebuild with better flood protection. Mobile, Biloxi, and NO are not going to relocate.
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.
You are the exception to the rule. Some people win the lottery twice against all odds. Unfortunately, you won the wrong lottery. Either that, or the folks developing the data got it wrong.
A significant portion of our country has just experienced a major tragedy, and we have some jerks castigating the victims and questioning whether their tax money should be used to provide assistance. It is mind-boggling. Smug, callow arrogrance is a good description.
"So... basically you are advocating that the rest of us pay for you to rebuild in an OBVIOUS floodzone.
"How very Socialist of you."
I was waiting for one of you conservator-than-thou types to pull this very gag--GAG!
Or perhaps you don't understand that, when America pitches in and goes to work rebuilding a community, as happens in virtually all disasters, the economy explodes? (No, I don't think you conservator-than-thou types really rely on facts, but blind prejudice.) Contractors will go into the area to help rebuild, construction materials have to be bought, equipment purchased, workers paid, gasoline and fuel purchased. The entrepreneurs who take the risk of these undertakings will succeed and the American people will back them with financing and funds, stimulating economic interest and economic growth.
As to where the people of New Orleans choose to rebuild, that's there choice--or is this very socialist of you? Would you like to dictate to people whose properties were destroyed and who mourn family losses?
Great post.
From what I have been told almost nobody has flood insurance in New Orleans. This is going to fall on the taxpayers.
I was hoping to distinguish between the acts of war and the acts of God.
I am only saying that every place in the US has natural disasters that are huge. I am not sure paying people to rebuild without addressing the regional issues is a wise thing.
DK
I was stunned on 9/11, I cannot imagine what it would be like to be a New Yorker on that day. Sorry.
I like that. What is the title?
If you go over to Amazon, you can hear a little of the tunes. Anywhere you dip into this album, you'll find something worth listening to.
Uh-huh.
Oh yes........monkeys may fly out of my butt, too.
The Democrat mayor of New Orleans is considered "quite conservative" as big city mayors go -- certainly far to the right of his counterparts in Baltimore or Detroit.
Indiana could use another city.
And when have you ever heard of 80% of a major metro area flooded. wow.
No.
That was my thinking--let the lake and river do what God intended and we have another Venice!
In 1950 my great grandfather, Dennis Conner, came through NO with his three brothers and his mother and father. He was 9 years old. They went up the Missippi to Missouri and farmed.
oops, make that 1850.
It truly is amazing. I don't think most people really understand the magnitude and implications of that reality.
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