The Future of New Orleans

[James Cook]

Acording to NY Times the city are being evacuatet, and the mayor
are calling "gustav" the storm of all storms.

So what do you think is New Orleans going to survive this storm, or is it becoming a
ghost town, taking into acount that katrina nearly destroyed New Orleans some years back,
wherent as powerfull as gustav

NY Times

[Erik]

From what I understand, it's way too soon to tell how big Gustav will be once it hits the American coast, and also where exactly it will hit.

Sounds like Nagin is overreacting, possibly on purpose to convince people to evacuate.

But if a major hurricane does hit New Orleans again, I seriously doubt their levies will hold this time.
Compared to what we have in the Netherlands, they look very wimpy, and scientists have calculated that our dikes would fail if even a medium sized hurricane hit us. (fortunately there are no hurricanes in the North Sea and the chance of getting such a powerful storm here is calculated at once in 10.000 years
).

I think the people of New Orleans need to make better plans to deal with these hurricanes.
Either improve your defenses so it can withstand even the storm of the century, or build everything in your city "flood proof", or give up and go live above sea level.

[Farnan]

I wonder if Bobby Jindal will handle this better than his predecessor.

[danzig]

Nagin IS overracting even the national weather service has said his comments about the storm were offbase but I can understand WHY he is. Last time even despite local and state incompetence people just didnt take it seriously so unfortunately this time he is going to the extreme to get people to leave just in case. Hopefully the storm wont hit the city but as pointed out a bit too early still to tell but people in NO SHOULD be leaving or preparing to leave just in case.

I wonder if Bobby Jindal will handle this better than his predecessor.

Only way he can handle it worse then Blanco would be to fly over the city in a copter and uriniate on the city.

I think the people of New Orleans need to make better plans to deal with these hurricanes.
Either improve your defenses so it can withstand even the storm of the century, or build everything in your city "flood proof", or give up and go live above sea level.

Yeah but wont happen until competent, non corrupt officials are actually running the city...and given their history dont count on it.

[DisgruntledGoat]

The National Hurricane Center is on Canadian news, and he is saying that the storm is going to be POWERFUL. A Category 4 which is unlikely to weaken between now and landfall. The iffy part is that they don't know where it is going to land. ALthough he just said a 30 mile distance from New Orleans for the landfall would still be devastating. So I don't Nagin is overreacting.

[bleach]

Maybe there just shouldn't be a city on a delta that is hit by hurricanes often.

[Celsius]

Maybe there just shouldn't be a city on a delta that is hit by hurricanes often.

Maybe there shouldn't be homes in California where the forrest catches fire every year. Maybe there shouldn't be a city in the middle of the country where tornados hit. You can't find a perfect spot where there are no natural disasters.

[danzig]

Maybe there shouldn't be homes in California where the forrest catches fire every year. Maybe there shouldn't be a city in the middle of the country where tornados hit. You can't find a perfect spot where there are no natural disasters.

Time to evac alot of the middle east too...what morons living in areas with lack of water!

[LoZz]

Maybe there shouldn't be homes in California where the forrest catches fire every year. Maybe there shouldn't be a city in the middle of the country where tornados hit. You can't find a perfect spot where there are no natural disasters.

yes there is, its called britain, god doesn't crap in his own backyard

but seriously, while no place is 100% safe, living in tornado ally always struck me as a little odd.

[danzig]

The National Hurricane Center is on Canadian news, and he is saying that the storm is going to be POWERFUL. A Category 4 which is unlikely to weaken between now and landfall. The iffy part is that they don't know where it is going to land. ALthough he just said a 30 mile distance from New Orleans for the landfall would still be devastating. So I don't Nagin is overreacting.

Well he is with the facts he is putting out, he said something like the storm was "900 miles wide" to which NHC was left bewildered because hurricanes dont get that big. Like I said though I can understand why he is given the disaster last time but the truth is bad enough so why overstate something especially if there is a chance of causing panic in an area actually NOT in danger. Someday maybe we'll just elected officals who can just stick to reality/facts.

That said the timing of it sucks since the work the army core of engineers has been doing to protect the city better is only 20% done and was on track to be finished by 2011. So hopefully they can dodge the bullet here.

Maybe there just shouldn't be a city on a delta that is hit by hurricanes often.

Well there is neither here nor there now..always going to be people who live in regions that are hotspots for danger, whether its cyclone/typhoon happy areas in asia, southern california on a fault line or nearly everyone in the Netherlands. The real fault here is not improving the city as technology advanced with the thought well it hasnt happened yet so lets not bother. Atleast after Katrina that changed but still 3 years away from completion of the 13billion dollar project.

[Erik]

I can understand why he is given the disaster last time but the truth is bad enough so why overstate something especially if there is a chance of causing panic in an area actually NOT in danger.

Not to mention the effect that "crying wolf" has on the people's willingness to evacuate in the future.

btw: In my country key decision like when to close tidal barriers is left completely to computers, precisely to prevent overreacting humans from making unnecessary precautions.

[danzig]

Not to mention the effect that "crying wolf" has on the people's willingness to evacuate in the future.

btw: In my country key decision like when to close tidal barriers is left completely to computers, precisely to prevent overreacting humans from making unnecessary precautions.

Yeah after Katrina I did alot of reading up on your country, just made me more pissed. You guys invested 50 years worth of work protecting yourself, Lousianna would have required much less effort (and cheaper if started during a similiar time frame) and the state, the city and even the feds just fiddled their thumbs. Too much shortterm thinking over here far too often. 50 years to protect your country and we couldnt even spare the 5 years to protect a vital city (well until katrina, as I said above current work isnt due to be finished until 2011). Out of sight out of mind I suppose, guess you tend to appreciate the need more when 60% of your country is at risk vs "oh its just New Orleans *I* dont live there".

The irony is I believe Nagin used the crying wolf thing as an excuse on why he didnt order NO evacuated last time....decisions like this should be relatively simple. Wait to see what NHC says on the most accurate projection and then decide....instead last time he waited until it was too late and then didnt order it and now he is doing it too early.

[Erik]

Yeah after Katrina I did alot of reading up on your country, just made me more pissed. You guys invested 50 years worth of work protecting yourself, Lousianna would have required much less effort (and cheaper if started during a similiar time frame) and the state, the city and even the feds just fiddled their thumbs. Too much shortterm thinking over here far too often. 50 years to protect your country and we couldnt even spare the 5 years to protect a vital city (well until katrina, as I said above current work isnt due to be finished until 2011). Out of sight out of mind I suppose, guess you tend to appreciate the need more when 60% of your country is at risk vs "oh its just New Orleans *I* dont live there".

It also took a major catastrophe ('53) to wake up the Dutch government and implement proper water defenses.

It's been three years since Katrina.
I don't think that's enough time to do much construction, especially considering that they also had to re-build large parts of the city.
But it should have been enough to come up with good plans.

So far I haven't heard much of NO's plans on how to make their city hurricane proof.

[VALIS]

One of the most ill-conceived cities of all time. Pompeii was destroyed and they let it be. Same should go for New Orleans. It is not a city that is feasibly possible to last a long time. Build a new port city, screw New Orleans, leave it to the scrapheap of history.

[Father Jack]

One of the most ill-conceived cities of all time. Pompeii was destroyed and they let it be. Same should go for New Orleans. It is not a city that is feasibly possible to last a long time. Build a new port city, screw New Orleans, leave it to the scrapheap of history.

I dont think that when the French first settled on the Mississippi delta they would have considered building New Orleans into the city it is today. They proberbly thought that New Orleans would be a nice strategic stop off point for traders and soldiers. Unfortunately it is the over development and the transformation of New Orleans into a large city that has meant we have problems like this.

[Каие]

Is this by any chance a result of Global Warming?

[danzig]

Is this by any chance a result of Global Warming?

Al Gore comments aside http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0812160615.htm basically less storms but chance at stronger storms.

[Каие]

Well we know what to do...

[Thanatos]

Whether or not New Orleans is saved, I just have to ask...

If it's a place where you get hurricanes all the time.... why the hell do you live there?
If it's a place where you get fires coming through all the time... why the hell do you live there?
If it's a place where you get tornadoes or flash floods all the time.... why the hell do you live there?


Why the hell do you live there, and more to the point, why the hell do you KEEP living there?

[danzig]

Whether or not New Orleans is saved, I just have to ask...

If it's a place where you get hurricanes all the time.... why the hell do you live there?
If it's a place where you get fires coming through all the time... why the hell do you live there?
If it's a place where you get tornadoes or flash floods all the time.... why the hell do you live there?



Why the hell do you live there, and more to the point, why the hell do you KEEP living there?

Benfits out weigh the slight risk...or they simply love living in the region dispute the risk? As pointed out there are very few places on the planet that arent at risk to *something*. Hell my risk here in NYC is someday the city might become all radioactive