What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

New Orleans - should they rebuild?

  • Thread starter Finch
  • Start date

Finch

Whats it to ya?
New Orleans. They are going to rebuild the city, but do you think they should? The city is already below sea level and sinking. Parts are expected to sink by as much as 8 inches by 2015. The gulf coast nearby is eroding also. But lotsa people simply wont leave their homes in the area, wont imagine living anywhere else. I have moved so much in my life, I don’t really understand why they would feel that way, but that’s just me. I think that even barring sea level rise, the city is SINKING and that along with its already below sea level elevation is just asking for another disaster. The city will keep sinking, but you cant build adequate levee’s indefinitely. They are not even adequate now!

I think that all cities must end in time, and I think its New Orleans time before something even worse than Katrina will happen. It may not happen for 100 years, but because of its location and geography, it will happen again. And again.


DO you think the city should be rebuilt?
 
Interesting question.

It is possible for a city to survive and thrive under sea-level, look at the country of Amsterdam...

However, I do feel that if people chose to stay and rebuild that they forfit any rights to complain if anything happens again. I do not see how they could claim to not know they were below sea-level before ("Yeah, that wall there, it holds back the ocean...") but they sure as heck know it now.
 
I think the reason that people don't want to move is that it's more than just a connection to the city, but it's a connection to a culture as well, and that culture is unique to Louisiana. I was born and raised in Louisiana and most of my family is still there in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. I can't name another place where I can go and have the same cultural experiences that I have when I'm there, and I travel A LOT.

That being said, I can't understand why we're even having this discussion about rebuilding the city. How many times has Los Angeles been rebuilt after earthquakes? I can't remember for the life of me ever hearing someone say "Why rebuild, let them all move." You've just lost all of your material posessions and now you have to give up your culture too? How fair is that?

I was in New Orleans, Biloxi, and Gulfport three months before Katrina hit and I was in New Orleans just a few months after Katrina hit. It was devastating to go back. My family had to evacuate the city, many of my friends there lost EVERYTHING they owned. Some of them went back, a lot of them didn't. The city is far from being right and I don't think the city will EVER be the same again but that's certainly part of my heritage that I don't want to lose.

As far as people not knowing the city is below sea level, I'm not sure where that information comes from. It's standard information in Louisiana History that students are required to take. New Orleans is a city of diverse backgrounds and I'm sure there is someone in the city who didn't have enough education to even know what sea level is. What was your source's source of that information? They had to get it somewhere, and you need to take that into consideration. I have my issues with how all parties involved handled the post-storm situation as well.

I think it's best summed up by a Louis Armstrong song. "Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?" Many of us do.
 
I say we rebuild it somewhere else. like a mile or two up river where its not so prone to flooding. The entire city is not below sea level I believe parts of it are higher. Thats why areas like the french quater didnt get hit so bad as others. I could be wrong on that though as this is just what I have been told by someone who was working down there in the initial clean up stages.

And for those of you who say moving a city is too hard the Soviets did it during World War II with an advancing army at their back. I think it would be a bit easier with just an ocean there to worry about.
 
When you say it like that, It sounds like one person is in control of a group and they all agree on an outcome and say if it will or will not be rebuild. If individuals want to rebuilt, they will. If they don't, well that's fine too.

It's preposterous to think it will become some deserted city like in that Silent Hill movie :) Of course it will be rebuilt. No point in doing anything major until the levees are rebuilt PROPERLY to withstand another hurricane like that.
 
Actually, the statement that New Orleans is below sea level is technically false. As a whole, yes, large portions are below sea level, but most of the original city was built on raised areas which remain above sea level. It was only as the city grew that it expanded into areas it should have avoided. That's why little of the French Quarter was flooded.

I used to live there, and even after Katrina, I'd still move back if given the chance. I do, however, think that how rebuilding is managed is going to determine the longevity of the city, and I'm not terribly optimistic given the rampant corruption that is the defining characteristic of Louisiana politics.
 
I used to live there, and even after Katrina, I'd still move back if given the chance. I do, however, think that how rebuilding is managed is going to determine the longevity of the city, and I'm not terribly optimistic given the rampant corruption that is the defining characteristic of Louisiana politics.

Amen from the church of the painful truth!
 
rebuild on higher ground.........those that choose to rebuild in the worst hit areas cant complain when this happens again.......course i cant believe any one would intrust their safety to the Corp of Engineers.....they dont seem to be able to manage much of anything correctly.........
 
is possible for a city to survive and thrive under sea-level, look at the country of Amsterdam...
I know, but they dont have to worry about hurricanes either.


It was only as the city grew that it expanded into areas it should have avoided. That's why little of the French Quarter was flooded.

But they are rebuilding, or going to, every part of the city, even the lowest points. I heard talk of turning those parts into a giant park but people didnt want to loose the areas they came from. I can understand about the french quarter and the higher areas, but the lowest part that floods, i think thats just silly.

This is a map of elevation of the city. The mississippi river is above sea level,

sealevelmap.JPG
 
  • #10
See here is where the government needs to act because when something like Katrina happens again, and it will, then they are going to be crying why isnt the government helping us. IN reponse the gov't will spend rediculous amounts of money to try to help these people who put themselves in the situtation. Personally I say we bring in some big bulldozers take out the low areas and make it illegal to live in those areas and if people dont like too bad.
 
  • #11
Really? Ehh, I support a person's right to live wherever they want. Even if it's not smart. Otherwise no one would live in Alabama.


Hehehe. I wonder if they could just fill in the low areas. Wow, I wonder how much that would cost?
 
  • #12
I support a person's right to live wherever they want. Even if it's not smart.

In a way i agree, but think of it this way. You move into one of the dumbest places you could, whatever it is. And you bring your family. Do you raise your, say 1 and 3 year old near a toxic waste dump? On the eroding banks of the river? In a canyon scourd by flash floods? Even if the adults have the choice, if you drag your children along for the ride, thats not just your own life that will be on the line of things hit the fan. People who dont have a choice. Thats just extreme examples, i dont think New Orleans is that bad.

And as for living wherever, i dont think so, if its your own property yes, but i dont want people building houses in my backyard, or in national parks, see.
 
  • #13
I always thought Silent Hill was a video game..

Anyways, they could always just build their houses up on stilts. Thats how its done in the keys.

Maybe it'll eventually be one of those cities where the only way to get around is by boat.
 
  • #14
"If it keeps on rainin', the levee's gonna break...."


- Led Zeppelin
 
  • #15
I have no problems with them living there if they want to but they get nothing for help when it floods again from the government. They are on their own. The reason I say the gov't has a say is because fedral $$ is being used to clean up and rebuild the area and the feds are going to be expected to rescue the idiots that move back in so I would say its the gov't responsibility to the broadest base of tax payers to not waste our money on letting people make stupid descions. But if our government stopped wasting our money I am almost certain the universe would blink out of existance. LOL
 
  • #16
And as for living wherever, i dont think so, if its your own property yes, but I don't want people building houses in my backyard, or in national parks, see.

Hmmm.... No I believe you took that out of context :) I did not mean literally anywhere, but rather if someone wants to live by a cesspool or a toxic waste dump, let them I say. Doesn't bother me one bit.

Silent hill was a video game, and then a movie, Jeremy. Pretty good, and deranged (like I like it) I though :)
 
  • #17
Some people in Louisiana DO build their house on stilts, but when you've got a house that's under 20 feet of water, stilts don't help much. It wasn't JUST New Orleans that flooded though, y'all. Much of the surrounding areas were flooded as well. As far as building up low lying areas, what do you think that's going to do to the ecology of the area? Probably not a good idea from a conservation standpoint. especially taking into consideration the damage the local ecosystem suffered from the effects of Katrina, both from natural and made-made sources.
 
  • #18
Hmmm.... No I believe you took that out of context I did not mean literally anywhere, but rather if someone wants to live by a cesspool or a toxic waste dump, let them I say. Doesn't bother me one bit.

I think its ok if adults do that, but i think it is not acceptable if dong so puts children in serious danger. NO ONE has the right to do that.
 
  • #19
Well, then the real question is whatcha gonna do about it?

Lmao. "NO! You can't live here because you have kids! MOVE!"

Good luck with that :)
 
  • #20
Eliminate government assistance/interference in the coastal zone property insurance market and there'll be a lot more sanity in coastal development. People pick on New Orleans and its poor black people for irrationally occupying a flood zone, but the real problem is all the well-off people and corporations who've sprawled along coastal areas nationwide with beach homes and stores and resorts and what not. They can do that because they don't have to pay for the real risk of occupying those places.
 
Back
Top