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2006-01-15 Home Front Economy

Engineers Race to Fix New Orleans Levees

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Posted by Steve White 2006-01-15 00:00|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 It's a waste of time and money. NOLA isn't worth what it's going to cost to save it from a Cat 5. Let it go and let anyone who wants to live there simply take their chances. No Federal flood insurance, either. If the state of Louisiana's taxpayers want to throw their money into a bottomless pit in NOLA, they're welcome to. The rest of us who have sense enough to live in places that aren't below sea level shouldn't have to pay for the folly of those who choose to do something that stupid.

Posted by mac 2006-01-15 01:12|| 2006-01-15 01:12|| Front Page Top

#2 But make damn sure the grain is exported and the oil is refined.

Posted by 6 2006-01-15 06:51|| 2006-01-15 06:51|| Front Page Top

#3 mac, just wondering...have you ever been there?

Not trolling, I just want to know.

I went there last January. Sure, parts of it were grungy, parts were unsafe, but the rest of it was wonderful and the food was divine.

From a more practical point, we need a port close to the mouth of the Mississippi, and for all it's faults, this is the best option available.

It can't be protected from Cat 5's, granted. But no one says that we should tear down San Francisco because the big one is coming any day now.

Posted by Desert Blondie 2006-01-15 08:22|| http://azjetsetchick.blogspot.com ]">[http://azjetsetchick.blogspot.com ] 2006-01-15 08:22|| Front Page Top

#4 But no one says that we should tear down San Francisco because the big one is coming any day now.

No one's offering to subsidize stupidity via federally subsidized earthquake insurance, either. Californians now pay about 2% per year on the value of their physical home (as opposed to the land value) in state mandated and operated earthquake insurance. There is also a very strict building code that increases the cost of construction there.

In a post quake San Francisco, the free market should make the assessment of what should be rebuilt, just as in NOLA. Whenever the government gets involved, the decisions are made worse.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2006-01-15 08:48|| 2006-01-15 08:48|| Front Page Top

#5 IIRC the port facilities are not in New Orleans but a good way upstream. 60 years ago New Orleans and suburbs were needed at least as living spaces for dock workers who numbered in the thousands. This is no longer the case. Automation and computerized tracking have reduced the work force to several hundred. We don't need to abandon New Orleans but neithe do we need to completely restore it. Rebuilding every, or most, residential areas will only precipitate another disaster in the future. Limited rebuilding is what should be done.

Posted by Deacon Blues 2006-01-15 08:50|| 2006-01-15 08:50|| Front Page Top

#6 A little over decade ago the Mississippi overflowed its usual banks. Has the federal government spent billions on those local levees? I do recall the government making available monies for small communities to displace to higher ground. Is all of New Orleans entitled to more than those residents of the shores of the upper Mississippi were?

Posted by Slurt Hupeart2484 2006-01-15 09:28|| 2006-01-15 09:28|| Front Page Top

#7 Deacon this is about 200 yards downstream from Audubon Park. A pretty random location from Google Earth.

Posted by 6 2006-01-15 10:04|| 2006-01-15 10:04|| Front Page Top

#8 I wish this guy were here to participate in the discussion. But next time I see his grieving father I'll tell him how stupid his son was.

(Rant begins here)

I've lived in New Orleans all my life, and my family lived in south Louisiana for 200 years before I was born, so I guess I come from a long line of stupid people. Although the city is my home and I am as attached to it emotionally as a man might be to his horse, I don't mind discussions about to what extent the city might be rebuilt or what practical considerations should govern the rebuilding (improved building codes ae essential in my view, for example, and I agree that not every part of the city should be rebuilt.) What I do resent are comments that imply that people from south Louisiana not quite American enough to warrant consideration, or are genetically corrupt.

I've worked hard all my life and I suspect I've paid as many federal tax dollars as most here. So if anyone doesn't want their tax dollars going to rebuilding New Orleans, hey, I feel your pain. I don't expect your sympathy and I don't expect a handout. But along with a million of your fellow Americans I expect your respect.

(Rant ends)

And my public thanks to the very many people out there who have helped in so many different ways.

Posted by Matt 2006-01-15 12:05|| 2006-01-15 12:05|| Front Page Top

#9 I think when disasters that size happen the Prez needs to declare Martial Law for reasons other than looters.
The prime one being that it keeps lawyers and local pols at bay by being able to say "thus and this will now happen regardless"

I would say they should start by repairing the levees then filling the city with fill to the level of the repaired levees.

Next build more levees higher then then newly filled land.

Make sure to keep the property records so even though the house might be under the fill the vertical rights continue on up. (maybe adjusting some roadway paths with trades.)

Now you have virgin property to rebuild on.
BTW... if you were even wiser you filled around new storm sewers, sewers, waterpipes, electrical and gas lines and fiber-optics outlets to each lot.

Now the lot owners would have prime real-estate worth building on. They could build themselves or sell prime land to developers and such.

Remove the Martial Law at this point with the lawyers and pols successfully bushwacked.

Posted by 3dc 2006-01-15 13:32|| 2006-01-15 13:32|| Front Page Top

#10 good rant, Matt. Selected rebuilding is in order IMHO, and the f*&kers who put levee walls in short should be shot, contractors and the engineers who colluded with them

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2006-01-15 13:51|| 2006-01-15 13:51|| Front Page Top

#11 Desert Blondie,

Yes, I've been in New Orleans. As a matter of fact I spent three months there in 2001 building a ship in Avondale Shipyard. I used to go running along the tops of the levees. It didn't take rocket science to see that the water on the lake/river side was well above the level of the houses on the city side and that if the levee broke those houses were going to get real wet real fast. THE PLACE IS BELOW SEA LEVEL!!!! How much more do you need to know before you realize that sooner or later the defenses are going to fail? I spent most of my adult life going to sea; the sea is a dangerous and unforgiving enemy that never sleeps and its wave action, when really fired up, is arguably the most devastating natural force on the planet. When you put those things up on the board and combine them with the fact that Louisiana is the northernmost banana republic and NOLA was the most corrupt part of that state, it was a guaranteed recipe for disaster. Again, if the citizens of Louisiana want to rebuild down there and pay for it themselves, more power to them. If the Federal Government is supposed to support the reconstruction, I'm adamantly opposed. It's simply throwing good money after bad and if the people of NOLA don't like it, they can console themselves with the fact that politics can't trump physics.

Posted by mac 2006-01-15 21:13|| 2006-01-15 21:13|| Front Page Top

#12 I am against rebuilding sea level areas. The rebuilding cost figure of $200 billion tax dollars is being thrown around. That comes around to $400,000 per man woman and child. Relocate the flooded out people and return the land to the swamps. A smaller New Orleans can survive on it's critical industries, French and Garden tourist districts.

Posted by ed 2006-01-15 22:10|| 2006-01-15 22:10|| Front Page Top

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