Do Not Rebuild!

   For 300 years we have been fighting back the Mississippi in the Louisiana delta just to keep New Orleans around. Every year the city sinks because there's no replacement of the sediment on which it is built. Every year the possibility of a horrible catastrophe becomes more likely.

   The only thing that needs be done vis a vis the Mississippi is to keep it dredged deep enough to facilitate navigation. By channeling the Big Muddy as we have, we have created a monster. The sediments fall in the ship channel and require constant intense dredging to keep shipping lanes open. The surrounding dykes require constant maintainence because the river gnaws at them with greater speed caused by the containment. The region offshore from the delta is slowly starving to death. The sea life there, once so abundant, is fast becoming non existent. Ask any fisherman and they'll tell you they have to go further and further out to get a catch.

   All of the refining facilities in the greater New Orleans area are antiquated. All of the ship building facilities are too. In fact, the only reason we keep pouring money into that bowl between the Mississippi and Lake Ponchartrain is pure human pride and greed.

   We refuse to relinquish the Big Easy because we are so used to besting Mother Nature. Welp, I suppose we COULD continue the fight ... but we had better be willing to allocate the kind of funding that the Netherlands has for decades. They spend fully a third of their GNP on fighting Mother Nature and to fight her in the delta would be 3 times that battle.

   We refuse to let the Crescent City go because of 'all that tradition'. Let me tell you something right now. All that tradition ain't pluckin' folks off their roofs and it ain't goin' drain that swamp either. Nope, that requires that every single taxpayer pony up big bucks just to keep some false sense of ambience and some tourist crap going. I can hear 'em now 'What about MARDI GRAS'?

   There's no sense in rebuilding New Orleans. It would be the dumbest thing anybody has done since Boss Tweed put the entire mass transit system above ground in New York City.That was 120 years ago and we are STILL paying for it. We are STILL trying to get it all underground.

   It's time to let old Man River have his way with New Orleans and build anew somewhere else. Preferably, ABOVE SEA LEVEL!

   We got off real easy this time. It could have been real bad. There could have been 200,000 people drowned in New Orleans alone. That tsunami only killed a few more than that. And the trouble Katrina caused is only beginning. In a few days those mosquitoes are going to be carrying some bad things around. If we should choose to rebuild ... they are going to have to scrape the top layer of soil to get rid of all the chemicals that were spilled by the storm. Hell, there's problems we haven't thought of yet.

           We should walk away from the Big Easy. Build it somewhere else.

Comments

[Mother Nature]

"...besting Mother Nature..."? Surely you jest. My indifference embraces even those fools who continue to disregard this simple reality. I will never be bested.

[TINA]

Sire, your wisdom knows no bounds."The Big Easy" is so steeped in junk, it makes the "Mississloppy" look Good by comparison. Mardi Gras can go hang...it is not necessary...and neither is New Orleans. I just feel sorry for the people.

[imp]

Saw a headline yesterday, " Mother Nature Takes Revenge On New Orleans ". Almost choked on my coffee and couldn't bring myself to read the article. Like Mother Nature really gives a flying phuck about anything!

Now, don't get me wrong, please, i feel for all the folks down there..it's truely devestating...BUT.....
when i hear of folks talking about rebuilding and how much its gonna cost, i get absolutely nuts and BP goes through the roof!

If we MUST have a New Orleans, seems it would be cheaper to build a new New Orleans, further inland. As Steel so wisely pointed out, the clean up alone is going to cost major bucks. To rebuild the old New Orleans would only be throwing good money after bad.

The new New Orleans, after time, might stand long enough to emit waves of nostalgia for those that long for the good old days of the old New Orleans.

We could call it NuNu for short.

[imp]

Take a look @ Mississippi and Alabama too! Double YIKES!

http://www.al.com/weather/hurricane/katrinaphotos/

[MPH]

entertaining post...

[Phoenix]

Imp,

I'm with you at people anthropomorphizing Mother Nature. But people do it for God all the time. Fact is, Mother Nature is God. Or The Goddess. If She were into this kind of 'revenge' - a slimey, self-destructive human emotion - she would have trashed Los Angeles instead of a place that has more, poor blacks than any place in our country. Do journalists have to fail an I.Q. test? Too bad they and their idiotic writing have so much impact on the idiots of our country. Seeing the L.A. Times floating out in the middle of the Pacific, or buried beneath the San Andreas fault would help our country's morale.

The blame game has to stop. The chant "It's Bush's Fault!" is easily one of the most disgusting things I've heard in my lifetime. Not only does it dismiss the powerlessness we humans are at the hand of Mother Nature, but it is energy that would be better focused on helping those poor people who could not get out of the hurricane's path. Those who stayed in defiance - screw them; but those who had no way out - man, that has to be the saddest thing I've ever seen. People need to shut the fuck up and send a check to their favorite charity. That people succumb to hate (for Bush and conservatives in general) to the point it usurps their ability to DO something to help......well, it says volumes about our sadly divided country.

Ugh... I need to quit here.... this stuff just trashes me. Forget the partisan bullshit, for crying out loud.

[Steel Turman]

The most chilling aspect of this whole tragedy is the speed with which citizens revertd to animals. This should give pause to any who argue against the 2nd amendment. It should also stand as evidence that we as a species/culture have a very tenuous grasp on the reality of our existence. When viewed from the comfort of one's living room it would appear that this is a solid country with mores and civility. Far from it. This is a country of lawlessness corraled by sheer force of will. Should we lose that will, either by attrition or the machinations of groups like the ACLU, this country will revert to exactly what we are witnessing in New Orleans today.