Ursus Pacificus

Hurricane Gustav is bearing down on New Orleans, LA. Almost three years to the day after Hurricane Kartina made landfall just Southwest of New Orleans and caused and estimated $82,000,000,000 worth of damage (2005 Dollars).

The storm officially caused 1,836 deaths.

Levee failures in and around New Orleans, together with power failures and an inept Federal response resulted in major parts of New Orleans being flooded for nearly a month and a half.

In the aftermath of Kartina, the Federal Government, through the Army Corps of Engineers, decided to re-build the levees to current Category 3 standards. They were originally built to Category 3 standards. That’s right. Let’s go over that a little… “I got my ass thoroughly kicked… hell, the floor was mopped with my ass… so I’ll recover to the level I was at when I got my ass kicked. That’ll show ‘em I mean business!”

Let’s go over a few important facts:

1. Most of New Orleans, LA is situated below sea level.
2. No one wants to insure real estate in New Orleans now
3. New Orleans is situated at, what is, effectively, the focus of a parabolic antenna for hurricanes.
4. Most of New Orleans, LA is situated below sea level.
5. The primary (read “only useful”) evacuation routes out of New Orleans have been demonstrated to be susceptible to destruction by flooding.
6. The Federal Government is only going to respond to a hurricane or other disaster. It will not take the necessary action to permanently remove the risk of another Katrina-like disaster.
7. Most of New Orleans, LA is situated below sea level.
8. If you do live or operate a business in a flood-prone area of the city, and are able to get insurance, the insurance companies are going to do everything in their power to avoid paying claims.
9. Most of New Orleans, LA is situated below sea level.

Let’s face it: New Orleans, LA is doomed. Even if Gustav doesn’t erase it completely, it will almost certainly cause another tens (or perhaps hundreds, thanks to inflation) of billions of Dollars. Are we to absorb this cost again? The rest of us take the heat, not just in terms of taxes (well, growth of the National Debt, which if we ever get anyone with a modicum of fiscal responsibility in the government who can take charge and start to pay down the debt, will have to translate into higher taxes), higher hydrocarbon fuel prices, higher insurance premiums, and so on. We all have to bear the burden. At what point do we all say enough is enough, and just let the sea take New Orleans. It is inevitable. Why fight it any more? Haven’t we learned that nature will do what it wants, when it wants, how it wants and we are powerless to affect any real short-term change? Certainly, we can throw millions of tons of carbon dioxide and soot in the air, decrease the reflectivity of the surface of the Earth, melt the polar ice caps, and, eventually, raise the temperature of the atmosphere a few degrees over a couple centuries… but I’m talking about real change, like eliminating the hurricane risk for the US Gulf Coast once and for all. Can we realistically accomplish that? Um, no.

What was it Bush said? “Fool me once… shame on… shame on you. Fool me twice… we can’t get fooled again.”

We’ve already been fooled once. New Orleans was effectively plowed under in 2005, and it was decided that it should be rebuilt. That’s not even finished, and Gustav is threatening to plow New Orleans under again.

Let’s cut our losses if New Orleans gets spanked again. Give anyone who wants it six months to get their stuff out, take the whole Mississippi Delta by Eminent Domain, and call it New Prypiat.

… and hey! Here’s a thought… on land *near* New Prypiat (but above sea level), a memorial/interpretive center/adult theme park could be built, and the revenue could be used to pay down the National Debt!