[LittleOldLady]

AZK--

As a displaced New Orleanian, I have been keeping a pretty close eye on things from my place of exile in Las Vegas. This is what I know at the moment that is relevant.

Habitable housing is in short supply and great demand. Tulane will likely make housing available in dorms or trailers, and that would be probably your best bet. At the moment there is no landline telephone service and cell phones are iffy. Mail service is sporadic. Some stores, restaurants, gas sations are open, but for many items it is necessary to go to the suburbs. At the moment only two hospitals are open--Touro and Children's. In Jefferson, East and West Jeff and Ochsner are open. Big Charity will not reopen (a major blow to medical education in NO). I think University Hospital is also condemned, but I'm not sure. Conditions should improve by the fall, but by how much I don't know.

As for the coming hurricane season--

The violence of the last couple of hurricane seasons is not due to global warming. The number and intensity of hurricanes go in cycles of roughly 30 years. We were warned for the last few years that a period of relatively few and relatively mild hurricanes was coming to an end and that we would soon see much worse hurricane seasons over the next roughly 30 years. And obviously that is what we are now seeing. It should be remembered that the hurricane caused very little damage in New Orleans--although it caused a lot of damage to our east in Slidell, Washington Parish, the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and Alabama. The flooding occurred after the storm passed when the floodwalls and levees gave way. The city was not flooded because it is below sea level, except in a very indirect way. My neighborhood had water to the roofs not because it is below sea level--it is right about at sea level. My house is the low point in the area at less than a foot below sea level. (In comparison Schiphol Airport outside of Amsterdam is 30 ft below sea level and is low and dry.) My house flooded because it is a block away from the London Avenue Canal midway between the breaches at Robert E. Lee and Mirabeau. As we now know the engineering and construction of the 17th Street and London Avenue floodwalls was grossly (and maybe criminally) inadequate. Supposedly our friends the Army of Corps of Engineers will jury-rig levees and floodwalls between now and next hurricane season. I personally don't have masses of confidence in this plan. With proper levees, floodwalls and pumps, New Orleans will be as habitable as the western Netherlands. Without, well, who knows? Uptown (where Tulane is) did not flood as much as some areas (between the river and St, Charles it didn't flood at all--there was flooding above St. Charles where the universities are located). This is partly because there is a natural levee right along the river and partly because the control structures in that area held. And, also, although no one mentions it, the water control systems have been designed to protect Uptown at the expense of the lakefront. The 17th Street Canal which drains Uptown was widened a few years ago (and the crappy floodwall built) specifically to provide better drainage for Uptown.

If you go to Tulane, I am sure you will get a good medical education. You will also be a sort of urban pioneer participating in what I hope will be the rebuilding of one of the world's great cities. Your choice....

LOL