[tarheelswamprat]

The river is higher than the city. It would. It'd be like pouring water from a pitcher. And there's no end of water to see...and it would be tearing up everything in its wake. Lots of current, lots of pressure behind it. Impossible to empty. The lake is lower than the river. It wouldn't equalize.

I believe New Orleans will turn out to be America's equivalent of Pompeii. There were several "minor" eruptions of Mt. Vesuvius which damaged the city and gave the Romans ample warning before the city was completely buried in the cataclysmic one of A.D. 79. Hard-headed realists that they were, the Romans figured-out that they should relocate elswhere.

[nwctwx]

Katrina changed the SE LA landscape too much to rebuild the city at the same location in my opinion. They can try to build 'cat 5 levees,' but the Gulf will take back any land it wishes... whenever it so chooses. Numerous land bridges and natural levees were lost in the area... the city is in more danger now than before.

[laz]

Heh, I said earlier on the previous thread that the only thing more foolish than building a city such as NOLA is building a city at the foot of a volcano and building an elaborate awning system to keep off the ash and lava.