Angie wrote on Sep 1
st, 2008 at 12:00pm:
lotsajizz wrote on Aug 31
st, 2008 at 9:46pm:
it's stupid to keep spending our tax dollars to keep rebuilding this lower than sea level hole that constantly gets filled in.
That's nonsense. My country (Netherlands, hence the name: Low Lands litterally) is below sea level for a third of the surface (where 60% of our country's population lives). Many, many inhabited regions in the US and the rest of the world lie below sea level
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_places_on_land_with_elevations_below_sea_le...).
I live near the coast, indeed also below sea level (even further than most of the New Orleans/Louisiana areas). Our people constructed these brilliant structures called the Delta Works (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Works) after a deadly big storm with flooding in 1953, to successfully prevent future damage and life loss (although we don't have these kinds of hurricanes in our moderate climate thankfully).
But nevertheless there are good building options for those kinds of regions. Dutch experts even went there to advise about construction after Katrina had hit. Of course it will take a huge investment of time and money, but so would moving a city. Problem is that construction won't be ready for the next 3 (?) years or so and maybe not all vulnerable areas can/will be protected equally well. And if a big monsterstorm strikes in the meantime, well... that's bad alright.
I wish everyone good luck. Even if this storm won't turn out to be the biggest (Cat 2 now I hear), having to leave one's home like that must be awful in itself.
Thanks for sticking up for us below sea level folk, Angie.
As for south Louisiana "not being worth the tax dollars," consider the fact that much of the nation's energy resources pass through here on their way to the rest of the country.
And then there's the port of New Orleans, a great place to begin your cruise to Central America, not to mention all the commerce that feeds the Heartland and points beyond.
Then again, I would agree on moving a certain Mayor Nagin, and most of the people who voted for him to, perhaps, Rhode Island?