Rebuilding the Gulf Coast

[Bluffoon]

and especially New Orleans makes no sense to me. At least not with tax dollars. I was reading today about estimates of the cost of rebuilding the levees and pumping systems and so on. For gods sake the city is under sea level in prime hurricane alley.

Ok so a few hundred years ago somebody made a poor civic planning decision. Now we know better. Let's rectify it. Downsize the city and let the low lying areas go back to the swamps they should be. Relocate essential industry and commerce somewhere safer.

For 150 billion or so you should be able to build a pretty nice city on some high ground nearby.

Maybe I am crazy.

[BluffTHIS!]

I agree. Declare the wreck to be totalled. I am willing to see tax dollars spent on rebuilding it elsewhere but not in the same place so it can happen all over again.

[MelchyBeau]

New Orleans is a major port city. There is no other port available to give access for people who ship goods down the mississippi river to the gulf. When you have produce like wheat and soy, it is too expensive to ship it by truck. Barges work out perfectly.

You get rid of New Orleans, you get rid of the midwests economy, food prices would go up. Our ability to compete on an international level economically would be severly damaged.

Melch

[BluffTHIS!]

The easy solution is to rebuild at sea level and then after demolishing the old city flood it and presto a bigger port. And if that's too shallow for the draft of ships then just run docks out farther or dredge it.

[SheetWise]

[ QUOTE ]
The easy solution is to rebuild at sea level and then after demolishing the old city flood it and presto a bigger port. And if that's too shallow for the draft of ships then just run docks out farther or dredge it.


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BluffTHIS -
I notice your Sierra Club membership has expired.

[img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[BluffTHIS!]

Yeah I'm concerned enough about dubious environmental issues and duck wetlands to spend 150B in taxpayer money to fix a problem than can only happen again. NOT!

[FishHooks]

You can have a port with out having a city with 1.5 million people. I dont think the entire city should be gone, but I dont think any tax payers money should go towards rebuilding this city.

[cadillac1234]

[ QUOTE ]
You can have a port with out having a city with 1.5 million people. I dont think the entire city should be gone, but I dont think any tax payers money should go towards rebuilding this city.

[/ QUOTE ]

There are huge suburbs outside of NOLA that had flood damage but they are not underwater. The CBD is largely intact, the tourist areas are intact.

Besides being a port city it's a huge refining area and sugar production area.

It can be rebuilt with better technology. Amesterdam was in a similar situation but they continued to update as technology improved.

[FishHooks]

As long as it's not with tax payers money, go for it. If we decided not to build anywhere that natural disasters could happen we wouldn't have much room in the U.S. to build.

[BluffTHIS!]

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Amesterdam was in a similar situation but they continued to update as technology improved.

[/ QUOTE ]

How many hurricanes do they get to threaten to flood below sea level areas that are behind dikes?