Rebuilding
It seems that people are having a bit of hysteria because some officials (notably Denny Hastert) are questioning the wisdom of rebuilding New Orleans. Before we shove over $100 billion into the rebuild, doesn’t it make sense to review a few things?
1). Geography. New Orleans (at the present site) is an average of 5 feet below sea level, with water on all sides. It is sinking at the rate of 1 inch per year.
2). Hydrology. Water obeys gravity. I know it is an inconvenient fact to the political class, but there it is. When you have to bury your dead above ground because of the water table, perhaps you have to consider what that means.
3). Storms. Katrina wasn’t a freak of nature. These things are going to continue to happen.
Are there ways to minimize the risk? Can we build sufficient systems to handle a Category 5 storm (and note that Katrina was a glancing blow from a Category 4)? Do we want to place a million people back into a shallow basin and see this happen again within fifty years?
I think these are reasonable questions to ask. Any outrage over these considerations strikes me as sophistry. It would be fair to ask the same questions about San Francisco if the worst ever happens.
Filed under: Katrina
“Do we want to place a million people back into a shallow basin and see this happen again within fifty years?”
Well, right now I’m thinking that I’d like to put quite a few of them back in that shallow basin and see it happen again next week!
Not that I’m bitter or anything.