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Geography of New Orleans

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  • Geography of New Orleans

    I never been to New Orleans but from what I understand it was built on land that is below sea level. This begs the question why? I remember from history that the city existed in 1803 (and maybe from before). Did the city sink during the last 200 years or was it always built below sea level?

  • #2
    Re: Geography of New Orleans

    yes. below. it is a city i love dearly and it is sad to see hundreds of years of culture, architecure and of course, lives and homes... lost in a blink of an eye.

    it's a travesty. they would not maintain the levee or what... upgrade it... dunno. but sumpin shoulda...

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    • #3
      Re: Geography of New Orleans

      New Orleans..was one of my favorite cities ranking right up there with Honolulu and San Francisco. I'd say it was America's most unique city.

      N.O. was built on Mississippi River silt land, and what I've read, it had been sinking, on average, 3 feet every 100 years.

      Here's a link to a story (not sure of it's date) that told of in advance of the tragedy that finally came to be.

      New Orleans' sinking

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      • #4
        Re: Geography of New Orleans

        Or check out the New Orleans Times-Picayune's special in-depth series from 2003, Washing Away. They knew it would come, one day.

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        • #5
          Re: Geography of New Orleans

          Though I imagine it's behind an 'ad wall,' Salon featured an excerpt from a book, "The Control of Nature," that looked at different regions where man has been at war with nature, including New Orleans.

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          • #6
            Re: Geography of New Orleans

            It's clear that New Orleans will be rebuilt. The USA absolutely needs a shipping port at the mouth of the Mississippi River. But should it be rebuilt in the exact same place? Maybe they should leave Old New Orleans alone, and build a New New Orleans (Newer Orleans?) somewhere that's close by but not quite as vulnerable.

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            • #7
              Re: Geography of New Orleans

              I think that same kind of denial goes on in any place that isn't subjected to severe acts of nature all the time. Up here, there are lots of rivers, and for years and years, they talked about "100 year floods" that washed across some of our valleys and destroyed everything. In the last 10 years or so, we've had at least two of these so-called 100 year floods.

              We're supposed to be getting ready for the "Big One" (earthquake). We had a little reminder in 2002 (thank god no one got killed) and have had a few more quakes since then of lesser magnitude. I think most of the people up here were rattled enough by the last big quake that they are aware (much like the people of California) of what they need to do. We have emergency kits for ourselves and our cats all ready and waiting. I have emergency stuff (a tent, sleeping bag, cooking stove and other supplies) in my car in case I get stuck in a place where I can't get home.

              I guess your main worry would be a tsunami or a hurricane. In either case, you would probably have enough warniing that you could rush to higher ground, etc. If you haven't already, review the evacuation plans for your area and make sure you have a little bag packed with some clothes and some canned goods and a can opener and some water, just in case. Have some dollar bills stashed away too because in a disaster, you might not be able to get to a bank or bank machine. It never hurts to be prepared for something that might be life-threatening.

              I'll miss the old NOLA. I'm sure they'll rebuild it, but right now it's hard to think of a time when it will ever be as charming as it was pre-Katrina. They were interviewing Harry Connick this morning. The poor man was so distraught by what he was seeing (he lives in NYC now) that he couldn't find words to express his despair at seeing his hometown so devastated. He is putting on a benefit telethon tomorrow night (he mentioned some other entertainers were going to be on the bill, but I can't remember the names he gave). The cool thing about Americans is a lot of them can be extremely compassionate in a time of crisis. The Red Cross had collected more than $21 million by this morning, mostly from individuals across the country. People were offering spare rooms in their houses to total strangers who were displaced by the hurricane. Apparently there were a lot of offers of help on the Craigslist NO site. Why is it we can only be compassionate and put aside political differences in times of disaster? Is that the only time we can remember that under our skin and outside of our political and religious beliefs, we really are all the same?

              Miulang
              "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

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              • #8
                Re: Geography of New Orleans

                Originally posted by helen
                I never been to New Orleans but from what I understand it was built on land that is below sea level.
                yea. When i went there witht a ladyfriend years ago, we were touring in one o those cablecar things and the driver was giving us alotta cool info. when he said. "OK, nawlins is below water level, which we are surrounded with."
                I almost got whiplash when I turned to my girl with wide open eyes, in surprise. Geez, hope the levee system is up to scratch. I thought.

                now one can't help but wonder:
                why would they allow the levee to fall into disrepair?

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                • #9
                  Re: Geography of New Orleans

                  Originally posted by kimo55
                  why would they allow the levee to fall into disrepair?
                  Why?
                  http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/..._id=1001051313

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                  • #10
                    Re: Geography of New Orleans

                    Registration may again be required, but the New York Times has one of the more clear 'overview' presentations of the geography of the area, and the levee system, here. It's Flash, though.

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                    • #11
                      Re: Geography of New Orleans

                      ABC aired a special report on Wednesday night concerning the events at New Orleans. It mentioned that the levee system was designed to handle a category 3 hurricane. The benfit/cost anaylsis to make it withstand a category 4 or 5 hurricane didn't make it cost effective.

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                      • #12
                        Re: Geography of New Orleans

                        Well I guess that report was wrong since Katrina was cat-3 and the levies failed to the point of total disaster. So much for the blame game on Bush. That Louisiana senator said Bush should have known since the levee report said so but I take it that report said it would surive a cat-3 hurricane?

                        But to back away from not blaming Bush, I think the dollar amount to fix N.O. was significantly higher than the cost to strengthen the levee system to a cat-5 hurricane. So I think regardless of the type of hurricane, I think the levee's should have been reinforced to prevent this kind of catastrophe and we would have saved money as well.

                        Now we're seeing a higher cost to clean up and bring N.O. back to normal than it took to strengthen the levee system.

                        Hmmmm I wonder how much it would have cost to rebuild the UH's Hamilton Library on higher ground than it took to clean up that mess and leave the library vulnerable again to the next flooding.
                        Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

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