Rebuild New Orleans Or Not?

[editor]

A meteorologist friend of mine said that it's possible that by this time next week they'll be trying to decide whether to rebuild New Orleans or abandon the city.

Food for thought.

[YakuzaIce]

...

[YakuzaIce]

I really hope it isn't that bad, but it isn't looking promising.

Oops, I don't know what I did but I double posted.

[sevfiv]

that's mighty bleak

this will be only the fourth category five recorded to hit the US...

and...

Scientists predicted Katrina could easily overtake that levee system, swamping the city under a 30-feet cesspool of toxic chemicals, human waste and even coffins that could leave more than 1 million people homeless.

story

[nate]

As a former New Orleanian, I don't think it is worth rebuilding.

Although NOLA is such a unique and interesting place, it just wasn't meant to be. Rebuild it only to be destroyed again?

Many people love NOLA, but do you think that people will still want to live there? It may be Louisiana's version of the 1900 Galveston hurricane. New Orleans dies or becomes a shadow of its former self and Baton Rouge thrives.

I won't be suprised if a few hundred thousand New Orleanians move to Houston this year. Good thing apartments are so overbuilt....

[J.A.S.O.N.]

^^ Baton Rouge becoming THE city in Louisiana may be a very real possibility. New Orleans could rebuild, but would it be the same New Orleans without the charm of the old architecture?

[Heights2Bastrop]

It is my understanding that the Mississippi River has been trying to change course for a number of years, but that manmade devices are preventing that. The course it wants to take would be the Atchafalaya River Basin taking it past Morgan City.

I have to wonder how the storm will affect the efforts to keep the Mississippi on its present course. Perhaps it is time to let Morgan City become the port city Nature seems to want it to be. If New Orleans is indeed destroyed, maybe it should be allowed to remain that way.

[RedScare]

For one of the few times since I've been watching hurricanes, I have not felt the newscasters were exagerating. Some of the stories about a NO direct hit (nola.com has a very thorough one) make one wonder if it should be rebuilt. But the charm of NO, combined with the love of the city by many of its inhabitants, as well as many of us visitors, makes me think it won't give up without a fight.

However, 30 feet of fetid water could change a lot of minds.

Fingers crossed.

[bigguy]

lET US PRAY FOR THE SAFTY OF THE PEOPLE AND THE CITY .

[kjb434]

We need to stop over reacting. Sure, some buildings will get damaged, but the city will not get destroyed. I've been sick of all the coverage on the news exaggerating how bad this is really is.

The 30 feet of water thing will not happen.

This gets me sick when people take this information and don't know what they are talking about. Every year in the spring time the Mississippi River reaches high on it levees from all the snow melt up north. The spillways are opened up to lower the river. Remember the big midwestern flood of '93? New Orleans and Baton Rouge were fine.

The Lake Ponchartrain Levees can hold up to 18' surges. The 20-30 predicted surge will get buffeted down before they hit the citie portion of the lake. Don't for get there are tons of swamps to the west of Lake Ponchartrain and the on the north side to absorb this water before it breaches the levees.

Sure, there will be flooding in the streets, but that happens all the time in major rains.

I just don't see this being that bad. I just received phone calls from people all over south Louisiana. Power it out, but cell phones are still operating currenlty.

I think the biggest appearance of damage will be window blowouts from the skycrapers (because the windows don't open). Trees will also be an issue, but that's in every Hurricane.

[RedScare]

The people I was listening to were Mayor Nagin, the Emergency services coordinator, LSU professors who have studied the situation for years, and other experts.

NO may or may not have dodged a bullet, with the hurricane blowing east of the city. As a local, you may not appreciate all of the doomsday predictions. But the worst predictions were not made up by the media whores, but by the local experts. We'll know soon whether the levees will hold. But, if they were that great, the Corp of Engineers wouldn't be raising them.

[The Great Hizzy!]

I agree with the mayor's take that the most immediate flood dangers will likely come from the city's drainage system, which, according to his public works authorities, will more than likely reach their peak capacity some time around mid-morning.

As a note, I've been watching (or trying to) WWL-New Orleans webcast and they do confirm that an appreciable amount of early flooding has started in certain areas of the city. Some streets are about two to three feet below standing water. These are probably the lower lying areas where drainage systems have been overwhelmed.

We're familiar with this type of stuff so you should have a good picture in your minds.

Unfortunately, the worst of the flooding won't be realized probably for another few hours.

[kjb434]

You need to also remember that they were trying there hardest to convince people to leave the city.

I don't doubt there will be 5-10 feet of water in some areas, but like Hizzy said, it's more due to the drainage capacity.

I see many pictures coming out of this similar to Allison.

[pineda]

Hurricane Blog

www.nola.com

[kjb434]

Also, Hurricane Betsy in 1965 left an average of 7 feet of water throughout the city. This was before the Lake levees were built and the pumps were little and most non-existent.

The city if much more prepared. Don't get me wrong, the damage will be tremendous, but I don't think pressing the doom-and-gloom constantly is worth it.

[MidtownCoog]

Could not be worse than Holland in 1953.

They rebuilt it.

[kjb434]

See the link below for all the resources needed for this hurricane:

Hurricane Center

Several live video feeds are available and many maps.

Good pic of Holland. They have to deal with these water surges constantly.

[jt16]

How many corporate relocations do you think we'll see in the next few years?

[citykid09]

CNN has been saying its not as bad as expected in New Orleans.

Anyways, I had to come to Houston yesterday and on my way back to Bryan/College Station, 0n 290 I saw rows, and rows of Louisiana licence plates.

[citykid09]

Here is a look at a recent image of the damage in New Orleans.

http://www.chron.com/

[kjb434]

not bad. I was expecting worse.

Most of the French Quarter turned out all right. Some building as shown above had some damage to old bricks which crushed some cars.

New Orleans fair pretty well.

[Guest danax]

Here is a look at a recent image of the damage in New Orleans.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Briiiiiiiiiiiicccccckkkkkkks!

I need hundreds more old bricks to finish my walkway in my backyard. I might have to head over there once the water drains. It is a shame though that the oldest buildings seem to get it the worst.

[MidtownCoog]

There is a market for old bricks. I built a patio in Midtown with some old ones from the 50s.

There used to be a good place on Washington that sold them.

[Guest danax]

There is a market for old bricks.  I built a patio in Midtown with some old ones from the 50s. 

There used to be a good place on Washington that sold them.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've managed to find probably 400 so far for free, many very old with the stamped names on them.

I wonder how the old homes in the Garden District have fared?

[MidtownCoog]

I've managed to find probably 400 so far for free, many very old with the stamped names on them.

Same here. Most of mine were found in Midtown on tear-down lots.

[Talbot]

Sucks for the owners of the cars underneath all of those bricks. But I am glad to hear that the worst case scenario didn't go down in New Orleans.

[hokieone]

As I was leaving work this evening around 6:30, I definitely saw more people walking around downtown, including families and in groups. For a second was thinking there must be some event in town, and then in made me realize it must be a bunch of people from Louisiana who had evacuated. Hopefully the restaurants downtown are accomodating to these people. Someone reported today price gouging going on at some hotels around town, which sadly is always bound to happen.

[RedScare]

Just when New Orleans residents thought they had seen the worst of it, a levee on 17th Street Canal breached, flooding whole sections of previously dry parts of the city, apparently including Bourbon Street.

http://www.nola.com/hurricane/t-p/katrina....tastrophic.html

[kjb434]

Good article, but Bourbon Street and the French Quarter are still not flooded.

Downtown and the French Quarter are on the higher parts of the city eventhough they are still below sea level. Fox News last night was in the french quarter where several bars opened back up with candle light and people were back on Bourbon Street. It seems that even a Hurricane can't stop the party.

[RedScare]

Yeah, one of the talking heads said there was "several inches of water in the streets" of the French Quarter. Sounds a bit bogus according to this quote from the Times-Picayune:

"In New Orleans, a city of 480,000 that was mostly evacuated over the weekend as Katrina closed in, those who stayed behind faced another, delayed threat: rising water. Failed pumps and levees apparently sent water from Lake Pontchartrain coursing through the streets.

The rising water forced one New Orleans hospital to move patients to the Louisiana Superdome, where some 10,000 people had taken shelter, and prompted the staff of New Orleans' Times-Picayune newspaper to abandon its offices, authorities said.

Downtown streets that were relatively clear in the hours after the storm were filled with 1 to 1 1/2 feet of water Tuesday morning. Water was knee-deep around the Superdome. Canal Street was literally a canal. Water lapped at the edge of the French Quarter. Clumps of red ants floated in the gasoline-fouled waters downtown."

They are apparently going to use helicopters to drop 3,000 lb. sandbags into the breach. Sounds interesting, to say the least.