29 June 2009

New Orleans Doomed



Louisiana in 2100 (predicted)

About 10% of the land in Louisiana, including essentially all of New Orleans, will be underwater by 2100, due to subsiding delta silts and rising sea levels. The engineering effort necessary to make a big dent in this trend is mammoth. Much of New Orleans is already below or just barely above sea level, the state has lost a large share of its wetlands to the sea, and Hurricane Katrina cost the city about half of its population on a long term basis.

If the latest predictions by scientists are even partially correct, Katrina may be just the first significant blow of many to one of the nation's most historically and culturally rich cities.

UPDATE: Just to be clear, I bear no ill will for New Orleans, and indeed consider it one of the South's most interesting and worthwhile cities. The authors of the scientific journal article cited by the linked Science News article, at least one from a Louisiana university, no doubt earnestly want New Orleans to survive. And, disaster isn't imminent. The time horizon is for gradual (or more likely sporadic but unidirectional) loss of Louisiana's Gulf Coast over 91 years.

The point the science makes is pretty simple. Sea levels are steadily rising -- steps to stop global climate change and model corrections may impact the rate of sea level rise, but won't stop or reverse it. The Mississippi delta in the vicinity of Louisiana is also sinking, which makes Louisiana more hard hit than many other vulnerable sea level cities. Both the rising sea and sinking land are relentlessly making changes without reversing themselves, not cycling back and forth, at fairly predictable rates. Nothing conceivable is going to stop the sea level from rising or the delta from sinking at some rate. There have been major losses already which we have not stopped with engineering. The scale of the problem is enormous, comprising 10% of the land in Louisiana. The kind of efforts that are necessary for an even partial save of some of the Gulf Coast (perhaps perserving a string of access to Louisiana in the manner of the Florida Keys and saving New Orleans itself a la Venice or parts of the Netherlands) is an immense engineering undertaking.

My headline is hyperbole, of course. But, the point is serious. New Orleans is doomed unless someone does something to save it, and the steps that are necessary to do that on the scale that is really necessary (this report reveals that this scale is much greater than most people had previously assumed) haven't even been really put on the drawing board, let alone commenced in the long process of designing, cost estimating, funding, and building a world wonder class engineering project.

Can America and the world save New Orleans? It is possible. It will cost many billions of dollars. The Denver International Airport and Boston's Big Dig cost on the order of a billion dollars and then is a task orders of magnitude larger. It is likewise bigger than the task of building an aircraft carrier which costs about $15 billion. Forced to guess from the little that I know, I'd estimate that it would cost something on the order of the mid-hundred of billions to low trillions of dollars just to save New Orleans and a little strip of land to access it. No one that I've heard from has talked about that kind of major national investment yet.

Should the investment be made? I'm not even trying to get my hands around that question in this post. I'm simply pointing out a credible report passed on from a respectible scientific journal and explaining the threat it describes to one of our nation's oldest cities, then improving a sense of what would be involved to deal with it in this extended comment. Broad discussions armed with facts generally produce the best results. And, while locals may be most knowledgable about New Orleans' prospects, this problem is on a scale that it can solve on its own (nor can private industry).

57 comments:

Dave Barnes said...

So, why do I care?
As long we, the USA taxpayer, do not pay to rebuild.
Doomed is doomed.
Let them all move elsewhere in this very large country of ours.

Kevin M. Kolb said...

Why should we care about you Dave Barnes? IF your house ever burns down, just move to another one just like it. Why should we care?

Kevin M. Kolb said...

Dave Barnes! You run a marketing company! Brilliant! I hope you don't plan on doing any work in New Orleans. . . -ever. But if your company goes down the tubes you can just go somewhere else and start a company in this very large country of ours.

TeeJay said...

Some scientists say the Earth is doomed, but so what? Let them all just move to another planet. I mean, they can't be that attached to that stupid little planet, right?

Anonymous said...

Gosh, I thought I was a US taxpayer too.

AGS said...

The whole subject Mr. Denver Colorado is making is pretty ignorant... Look at SF and NYC! These are two large cities that are looking at "doomed" natural disasters as well.. Would Mr. Barnes say the same thing about those cities? Would he say that about his own city? Some people actually have pride in where they live and would like to see it back and better- sorry you don't have that.

Anonymous said...

Dave Barnes

As the founder of MarketingTactics Dave provides tactical marketing consulting services and WebEnhancement Services to MarketingTactics clients.

Dave has extensive computer programming experience as well as over twenty years experience in sales and marketing for the computer and computer storage industry. Dave has worked for companies such as Digital Equipment Corporation, StorageTek, Unidata and EMASS.

Dave is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) with Bachelor and Masters Degrees in Engineering and an MBA from Babson College.

The combination of sales and marketing "savvy", exceptional technical capabilities and extensive "high-tech" market knowledge enables Dave to provide unique and invaluable service and support to MarketingTactics clients.

Despite having three degrees and having the words savvy and high-tech on his about us page in quotes, he still posted an ignorant comment on a blog for all the world to see.

-genius marketing tactic.

-and there's a typo in his reply as well.

http://www.marketingtactics.com/English/Company/Company.html

Steven Smith said...

As a New Orleanian reading you brilliant post I've gotta admit, your right. We should all just pick up and move to the Midwest right? I mean what good is it going to do if the government helps all of us poor people out by saving our land, right?

OK, here's what I suggest, I won't care about freezing temps, ice, and snow in Denver. Because after all, my federal tax dollars aren't going to make a lick of difference when the state, county, and city run out of money when they all run out of salt for the roads. But then again, you live in your basement, so shy should you care about your fellow Americans, right?

Bill Healy said...

The levees on the river and the navigation canals cut all throughout our marsh, which are the cause of this catastrophe, allowed S. Louisiana to provide idiots like Mr. Barnes with products shipped into the port of New Orleans and fuel to run his vehicle and heat his home. Wonder how many products scattered about his basement came though the port of New Orleans?

Anonymous said...

The prediction model is just that -- a prediction of what could occur if coastal restoration isn't a priority. You like the picture, so you're using it to justify your personal opinion/viewpoint.

I'm an American taxpayer, too. But I realize that Louisiana has been robbed of its share of oil revenues from the resource it has provided for decades. Your chest-thumping amounts to nothing more than saying it's okay to use and abuse a historically valuable part of this country and walk away from it when it becomes too costly or to troublesome. You are clueless as to how New Orleans has improved your quality of life in ways you don't even realize; you only see the pricetag for its repair from a man-made disaster in progress.

So where's your hometown? Since we'll be needing a replacement for national exploitation and unchecked destruction, I'd like to nominate your hometown to be at the top of the list. (But that unfortunately will only work if it provides something useful, like a critically-positioned port or access of offshore oil reserves.)

Anonymous said...

I guess he thought people from New Or-leanz didn't have the Interwebs.

George "Loki" Williams said...

Dave, Dave, Dave.

I wonder how many of your current clients differ with your opinion? I wonder how many of them would not be pleased to have their firms associated with such ignornace?

A public forum is a great place to make a fool of yourself, enjoy!

Anonymous said...

Wow, Dave Barnes is a complete idiot. The taxpayers should rebuild because it is a piece of this country. We can spend billions in other countries on roads, schools, food, etc., but we can't take that same time and effort to take care of our own. It says a lot about your mentality, or lack of, but this being the great country it is, you are entitled to your ignorant opionion and you are entitled to speak freely. What this New Orleansian asks, is that you at least educate yourself before using that right. To the rest of the Ladies and Gentlemen that left comments or have read this, plese press on to make sure that our country does not leave one of it's own behind to go to foreign land to help others. Thank you.

NOLATri said...

Dave Barnes has clearly proven that no matter how much education you have you simply can't fix stupid.

Unknown said...

Mr. Barnes,
Hard to see what I could add, but just remember, several hundred thousand people live in just the New Orleans metro area; add in the surrounding areas and you're looking at a lot more people and businesses than that. People often find it extremely hard to abandon their homes. In our city, family homes often go back many generations. Don't be so dismissive & judgemental.

Sarah Hoffman, New Orleans said...

Dave Barnes: You should care because new Orleans is a thriving and wonderful city filled with rich culture and extraordinary people. What would you say to people in California where they have wild fires and earthquakes? Would you tell them they are doomed and should move elsewhere? What about the beautiful coast of Florida, which is hit year after year by hurricanes and continues to rebuild. Should people give up living in such a beautiful place? You sir, are ignorant and selfish.

Anonymous said...

I understand the frustration post Katrina. I understand the frustration with countless hurricanes that dot our coasts.
I mean, gee whiz, look at all those federal dollars that continually pour into these areas.
And really, these coastal areas are all going to be reclaimed by the sea. Everybody knows this!
However....
Has anyone looked at the HUGE costs that are poured into these northern and western areas EVERY YEAR to clear away snow and to repair streets, buildings, etc from winter storms.
Oh, let's not forget flooding in almost every other state in our vast and varied geographic country.

PookaLove said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
PookaLove said...

I say let's not rebuild anything... after all natural disasters are God's way of expunging the planet. Like a good plague, let's take it as population control. No more life support, no more researching diseases, etc... Let's let any city cease to exist... SFO, NYC, MIA, MCI... I want to go home, I want to go home, I want to go home... Why should we care about one of the oldest and most original cities in OUR country. I'll bet, Mr. Denver, when SLC falls to an earthquake (and of course to rebuild on a fault line... STUPID!) you will welcome your population explosion.

Unknown said...

Why would anyone want to move? That is the most asinine thing to say. Do you move every time something wrong goes on in your life? I would venture to say you don't. I do believe your post is one of the most ignorant ones out there. As someone has all ready said...you can't fix stupid.

Sophmom said...

America needs New Orleans. Without the Port of New Orleans, there is no Port of Tulsa or Port of Pittsburgh, because the only routes to both of those ports go through SE Louisiana. The Port of New Orleans is a heavily utilized waterway that stretches 90 miles up and down the mouth of the Mississippi River. These problems facing SE LA are the entire country's problems if the businesses and residents of the Mississippi River Basin, a full one third of mainland USA, wish to buy and sell goods. How we got to this is complex, and there is plenty blame to go around, much of it federal in nature. Some is corporate, but not the least of the causes of the loss of land mass at the mouth of the river is that all of the flood control projects put in place to protect middle America from flooding, to keep those heartland ports working and the cities dry, impounds the silt that would otherwise replenish the wetlands southeast of New Orleans. New Orleans faces many of these problems so that the rest of America can be dry and buy and sell stuff.

Informed people know that folks who say New Orleans shouldn't exist or should be abandoned are just plain ignorant.

Jon Hallenus said...

So, Mr. Barnes, you propose a relocation of an entire group of people. Perhaps you are right, it worked so well with the Native Americans. Relocation is what the Nazi’s claimed they were doing to the Eastern European Jews. So, yeah, I am sure people will agree with your forced relocation of the New Orleans population.

Let’s examine this very large country of ours: The Midwest has snow and tornadoes. I am sure you were upset over the river flooding that caused people much damage -they can move elsewhere, after all we do have a very large country, right Dave? West Coast: Hey, California has areas of mudslides, wildfires, earthquakes, uncontrollable rioting at times. Furthermore, California has to import water from out of state, import electricity. Why should tax payers help these people? Not to mention, a seemingly endless supply of illegal immigrants… Finally, California is on the verge of bankruptcy, why should we help? Arizona has drought conditions as well as water shortages too. Colorado has the snow/blizzards, avalanches, fires, floods, and tornadoes. –This is in your home state…

http://www.readycolorado.com/pdf/coloradodisasters.pdf

Let them all move elsewhere in this very large country of ours. The South -areas like Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, etc. These areas are prone to flooding from tidal intrusions, hurricanes, electing stupid political leaders like Blanco, Nagin, Landrieu, Jefferson, Copelin, and myriad others. They are victims of their own ignorance. Hurricanes wipe out their communities from flooding caused by government planned and built levee systems. I know, let them all move elsewhere in this very large country of ours. How about the Northeast? The Northeast is home of the largest population density of this very large country of ours. This area is prone to blizzards/winter storms, heat waves -at times which kill people, because they don't have air conditioning and people up and die- these areas can be hit by hurricanes that go up the Atlantic coast, they are prone to river flooding. Maybe they should all move elsewhere in this very large country of ours.

Dave, I realized something as I typed my response to you. Every place in this very large country of ours has some sort of weather obstacle which we must face. Whether its hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, earthquakes, blizzards, rising rivers, mudslides, avalanches -there was sarcasm in this last sentence. If we want to make everyone relocate who we MIGHT have to allocate tax payer money to assist, then there won't be many places for all of us to move.

You need to admit you put your foot in your mouth, remove it, and apologize for making a fool out of yourself.

Anonymous said...

Let them eat cake!

Joyce in NOLA said...

My guess is that Dave has never been to New Orleans. And last time I checked, I pay taxes too. In this case, I am glad we don't get to pick and choose how our individual tax contribution dollars are spent. So, just for fun- Dave, realize this: You (and the rest of us) will be paying for New Orleans to rebuild. (And it will be money well-spent.)

Anonymous said...

Here are his clients:

http://www.marketingtactics.com/English/Clients/Clients.html

Most of them sound made up anyway.

Anonymous said...

As a New Orleanian, I can live quite comfortably without Denver. I can't think of anything produced in or originating from Denver that couldn't be obtained from elsewhere in this bountiful country.

Question is, can any landlocked state (and particularly those of the heartland) say the same about New Orleans, home to the United States' largest single port (measured by tonnage)? I'm betting it'll be less costly to preserve the existing port than it will be to rebuild/re-create it elsewhere (possibly over and over again) if coastal erosion goes unchecked.

mardiclaw said...

well, mr barnes you forget one VERY big thing, the powers that be... have chosen new orleans for superbowl 2013.... I guess the NFL knows something you don't, and if your thinking of getting tickets to this HUGE event that americans will flock to? don't bother... your not welcome in the modern day atlantis...

Sophmom said...

Don't forget the colleges and universities. Tulane, Loyola, UNO, Dillard, Xavier, SUNO, Delgado, Holy Cross, LSU School of Medicine & Health Sciences Center. Better get rid of them too.

George "Loki" Williams said...

So, will everyone else be joining me in avoiding business with any company that employs Marketing Tactics? Dave Barnes certainly does not need any business from anyone in SE Louisiana or from anyone who appreciates New Orleans.

And the more his company name or his name is used in comments and posts the more it will show in the search engines. FYI

Christy Aymami said...

As a taxpayer, I would like to recommend that Dave Barnes AND all of his businesses AND clients get absolutely NO financial assistance. No small business loans, no expansion loans, NO tax credits. Yes...this very large country of OURS. Yours, mine and OURS! I pay taxes, you pay taxes, we all pay taxes to live in this FREE country. If a snowstorm, flood, or forest fire takes down the home/business of Dave Barnes...NO taxpayer should pay to help him rebuild. So, dear Dave Barnes, is ignorance really bliss? I guess the human race is doomed because of stupid people like you. ReBuild New Orleans!

ps-May you never come to New Orleans for Mardi Gras or a Convention and have a good time on our turf...

Anonymous said...

Entire communities along the Gulf Coast were devastated. According to Mr. Barnes, perhaps they should have all become ghost towns. It's hard to see the world through a narrow eye. New Orleans is a breathtaking city, rich in culture and history. People are proud to live in homes 100+ years old and take great pride in restoring this great city while maintaining it's historical charm.

The ports are part of the infrastructure for this great world we live in. According to Wikipedia, " The Port of New Orleans handles about 84 million short tons of cargo a year. The Port of South Louisiana, based in the New Orleans suburb of LaPlace, handles 199 million short tons. The two combined form the largest port system in the world by bulk tonnage, and the world's fourth largest by annual volume handled."

I wonder if "Mr. Basement" has ever visited NOLA, nahhh... because then his eyes would possibly open to appreciate the beauty and diversity of a culture other than his own. (oh, and P.S. checkout FEMA online to see how much aid has been spent on Colorado over the years. As a taxpayer, I couldn't imagined not helping my fellow man during natural disasters.)

Andrew Oh-Willeke said...

Post updated. I'll look at the comments when I have more time to see if editing to reduce sniping and stick to substance is warranted.

Kevin M. Kolb said...

Mr. Ohh-Willeke,

What's wrong with sniping?

What did you edit in the original post?

Was the original reply not a 'snipe' at the people of New Orleans?

Have you heard of this little document? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

Of course you can edit anyway you want on your private blog, but please let your readers know when you do that way they you know that what you write and the comments on it are censored.

I thought your blog post was pretty fair.

What are you scared of?

I'm sure this is the most action your blog has seen.

My advice to you would be to let it roll, brother.

Andrew Oh-Willeke said...

My blog has seen more comments and traffic than this. My concern is that people discuss items in a civil manner and avoid pointless personal attacks. The First Amendment does not apply to this blog, but I kill comments mostly to eliminate comment spam. Still, I do have some standards of civility, which as "time, place and manner" regulations, are acceptable even under the First Amendment and are common in blog comment regulation. I do not, however, seek to limit ideas or disagreement, stated with civility.

Kevin M. Kolb said...

I don't need a legal degree to know that you can do whatever you want with your blog. I'm simply pointing out that it's a poor reflection on you if you begin to censor people because you don't agree with their tone. It tends to make me think that you're not just editing for civility, you're editing for comments that may differ with your opinion. . . which I'm beginning to think coincides with Mr. Barnes.

Please elaborate on your views on the matter.

I'm browsing, I'm browsing.

Help me. When has a blog post of yours gotten this much attention?

Kevin M. Kolb
Proud New Orleans Native
http://NOLAnative.com

Anonymous said...

A better question is, "Who is he billing while posting all of this stuff?"

LOL!!!

Anonymous said...

Doomed: Inevitable destruction or ruin.

-but now I see that it's simply hyperbole in your update. I'll let that slide.

Next time I would suggest the title:

New Orleans Doomed?

I have no problem with the author except maybe that he's just posting stuff from other people. There's nothing wrong with that I guess. I'd rather see more of his own opinion though. My problem is with Dave Barnes. We've been dealing with people like him for almost five years now. People who weren't here but think we were all robbing WalMarts and stealing Reeboks.

Anonymous said...

Civil manner? It's the web! Home of porn! Besides it's not like there are a lot of knife fights on here. Nobody even said damn yet. Damn.

Go back to dreaming of John Elway coming out of retirement and replacing Kyle Orton.

Kevin M. Kolb said...

Now, THAT, was uncivil.

Anonymous said...

“it is better to live here (New Orleans) in sackcloth and ashes than to own the whole state of Ohio” - Lafcadio Hearn

or Colorado for that matter!

Bonne Chance, Dave Barnes

George "Loki" Williams said...

I think berating the blog wner for removing comments is wrong. He was transparent and up front about it and it is HIS blog. If it was done in secret it would still be within his right although I would disagree with the secrecy on principle.

If you're a NOLA booster I'm sure you are familiar with the cesspool that the comments on NOLA.com are, why encourage more of the same anywhere?

And BTW, I'm a NOLA native that lives in Cincinnati. I've done my sackcloth and ashes time and still am an activist on behalf of my home town. (see HumidCity.com) Living in the land of WKRP has left me not as fond of that Lafcadio Hearn quote.

People hold these opinions because of the disservice the media had done to NOLA since Katrina first washed up on shore, especially FOX news. We need to educatepeople. Of course since my email to Mr. Barnes received the folowing response I do not expect education to take hold:

"Man, you NOLA people are sensitive. I had no idea that many people read Andrew's blog.

We don't have forest fires in Denver. And, I pay for homeowner's insurance to protect my finances in case of such a disaster."

My initial reaction to that is unprintable without going "blue" so I will refrain....

Anonymous said...

I see that your comments did not have any scientific footnotes. I know it is a blog. So anything goes. I am a native. My father and grandfather built those levees and flood walls. The problem is that the Corps and our Government would not put the money out to build the dams. The Netherlands even offered to send us the plans. The disaster of the levees cost more then if we had bought and built the dams.

I agree with everybody. Every state has their weather problems. So can you answer why our taxes are going to those places without comments of not rebuilding. They get their help immediately. We have waited 5 years. We still have no answers from the government. We have no way for some of our citizens to return to their homes of 100+ years. I will never be able to return. There are still not enough services for some of us to return.

Anonymous said...

California is doomed to fall off the continental shelf in a major earthquake, the entire East coast and Gulf coast of North America along with all Caribbean islands are doomed to be wiped out by hurricanes in 100 mile increments, various mid-west towns are regularly wiped out by floods and/or tornados and everything north of the Mason-Dixon line is regularly buried in snow (making southerners wonder why anyone would live up there) and yet every year since the Great Flood of 1927, which killed thousands and covered 1/3 of the continental US, the federal government has come to the rescue - with much gratitude from it's tax-paying citizens. The flooding of New Orleans was caused by the catastrophic failure of a federally built and maintained protection system and yet this appears to be the first time in our national history that a nation full of ignorant "tax-payers" has been up in arms about spending money to help TAX PAYING CITIZENS rebuild their homes and their city. As a tax-paying citizen of the USA, and New Orleans native, I suggest that the world will not mourn if we fail to rebuild New York, St Louis, Memphis, Kansas City, Savannah, Charleston, Miami, Key West, Houston, Mobile, Denver or countless other US cities which are regularly struck by disasters but an informed global community will and has mourned the loss of New Orleans. However, if we as a country are willing to lose all of these population centers then we will all be armed to teeth to defend our entitlement as tax paying citizens to a piece of the internal continental land that has never been subject to a natural or man-made disaster.

Anonymous said...

your initial blog was written tastefully, portrayed you as an educated, caring person and was a good topic to discuss. it is understood by Louisianians that plans are preventative measures to Prolong the life of Southern Louisiana. we will not solve the finances or engineering to create a "cure" for this task. please understand the issue is the tone in the original reader's comment. what would happen if this were a blog about child abduction and someone left a comment similar to... "So, why do i care if 730,000 children are stripped from their homes each year, i raise my own." that would obviously be upsetting to people. the comment was intended to provoke a reaction and that it did. opening a statement with "So, why do I care?" DOOMED the comment. it was distastefully stated, very abbrasive when commenting about something so many people are so passionate about.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Barnes, you can kiss my G.R.I.T.S. (Girl raised in the south!)

heather elizabeth said...

Dave, hope you never have to live through a national disaster. I do not know how you can put your head on the pillown on the night posting such dribble as this.

New Orleans is rebuilding better than ever. Whether you like it or not!

Heather Elizabet
6th Generation NEW ORLEANIAN

Shawna said...

Having traveled overseas I find that the most beautiful towns are the oldest. America is such a young country and without preserving historic cities like NOLA we will loose so much History.

Andrew Oh-Willeke said...

"I see that your comments did not have any scientific footnotes."

I linked to an article at Science News which is in turn has a link to a scientfic journal article. On the internet links are the functional equivalent to footnotes.

Carey said...

For Dave Barnes, you should care because New Orleans is one of the most diverse, culturally rich cities that America has and to lose it is to lose an important part of our nation's heritage.

And while it's easy for people like you to say "Let them all move", for many of the people of New Orleans, it's been their family home for generations and the endangerment of it has not been caused by their own choices, but but government corruption and failures(at all levels, local, state and federal) and the destruction of Louisiana wetlands by big businesses, especially the oil companies.

Carey Haskell

Anonymous said...

Side Note:

http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/01/news/economy/fastest_growing_cities/index.htm

New Orleans population up. Denver population down.

Dave Barnes said...

@Anonymous of 7/1
New Orleans is now growing rapidly. Its population is up 8.2% in the 12 months that ended July 1, 2008, gaining 23,740 people to 311,853, according to the Census Bureau. That still leaves it well below its pre-storm population of 484,674.

There have been some changes this year to the 25 largest cities.
For one thing, Denver moved into 24th place with 598,707 residents.

Unknown said...

I guess there are "Americans" out there that think it isn't amoral to abandon their fellow citizens. Is this what my grandfather died for when he gave his life defending this country?

nola-muse said...

good blog mr. Oh-Willeke. new orleans is important and you cannot easily wash us away. delete whatever you want this is your page just dont edit other peoples words. i am sure you do not. it is much nicer to let peoples stupidity shine through. remember people the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.

Elliott Brett said...

Don't worry, Dave. If we, as USA taxpayers, enjoy paying trillions of dollars to bail out irresponsible banks, enjoy paying hundreds of billions of dollars to fight for countries that don't even like us, and aren't willing to pay what it takes to protect our own borders (against erosion, in this case), then the whole country is doomed anyway, from far worse disasters than just losing our wonderful city of New Orleans.

Elliott Brett said...

Incidentally, I do appreciate the original article and point of topic. Coastal erosion is a tremendous problem. The loss of wetlands will further expose the interior of the country to damage from hurricanes. Without billions of dollars in environmental study, there's no way of know what types of collateral damage will result when, say, the Arkansas River basin receives the full brunt of a Category 5 storm.

Currently, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has proposed several measures to prevent flooding in New Orleans, in the event of another Katrina. The problem is that the solution they are pursuing is the "cheapest" (Option 1), a solution that they recognize is not the "best" (Option 2A.) I am happy to see that this is gaining the attention of people in Denver, Cincinnati, and other parts of the country. Thank you for writing this blog and apologies for any uncivil comments from my neighbors and friends. The fact is that we are very passionate about our community. We were among the people who didn't ask, "should I go back to New Orleans?" We were the people who asked, "how fast can I get back to New Orleans?" I did not grow up here. I moved here after college to begin my engineering career. But this has become my home, indeed.

Unknown said...

i am not a fan of the comments of Dave Barnes in relation to New Orleans. i am happy to see the passion for NOLA in all the comments. i wish we would all take the energy we use in defense and instead use them for creation. Because then, if we were to create in the face of instigation, we would look up and be well past the small comments like those of Dave Barnes.
So to that end, to some degree, i am thankful for the comments of Dave Barnes... it reminds me that (a) people are more closed-minded and closed-hearted than i realize sometimes and (b) i've got more work/creating to do.

Unknown said...

"mid-hundred of billions to low trillions of dollars" !!! You sound like a budding politician throwing around these figures as if you really know what they mean. If there weren't so much graft and thievery in government it could've gotten done. I hear politicians use billions as though they know how much it really is but I think they are adding in their heads how much they can carve off for themselves. Everyone keeps forgetting how much the oil companies have profitted from the canals they dug, how much La. sends to the federal government and how little it gets back. This situation could have been fixed if they would have really cared. I'm thinking Venice. I am investing in gondola stocks! When it tanks I will wait for my bailout.