I didn't read the article but really, unless the government ponys up some really big bucks to properly reinforce the levees and build new pumping stations it's just going to keep happening. In case nobody told you, we're in the middle of a multi-billion dollar occupation/free money giveaway to "defense" contractors in Iraq. Not to mention the fortunes we're paying in corporate welfare to keep oil companies happy so they can continue to erode the delta areas around Louisiana with pipelines carrying oil, which help to contribute to flooding. And what the floods don't get, apparently Formosan termites will finish. Don't get me wrong, I love New Orleans but there seem to be a number of priority problems that make me think rebuilding is an exercise in futility.

The fact is, sadly, that New Orleans exists in a location that should never have been developed in the first place. It is extremely geologically unsound, sinking at several cm/yr, and will continue to do so. It's absurd to build on top of its destruction, which will just happen again... and then, again. Why throw good money after bad? Nature intended the entire area to be a swampy wetland. Best to let it return to what it was meant to be.

... originally perched on the high ground formed by over-wash deposits from annual river floods. Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, actually had to wait for the water to recede before he could plant the French flag in 1718. A flood destroyed the village the year after he founded it, and hurricanes wiped it off the map in 1722 and again a year later. In its 289-year history, major hurricanes or river floods have put the city under 27 times, about once every 11 years. I'm reminded of King Canute's legendary attempt to "hold back the tide". Canute deliberately placed his throne on the beach and used his evident inability to order the tide to roll back to display to his courtiers the limitations of a king's power to command the seas. 100 years, 50 years, maybe even in our lifetime New Orleans will be a footnote to man's inability to master the sea and the ego that drives him to try again and again. Let it go.

Dubai palm frond, anyone?

Alain, that was the best possible retort I think I've ever seen on any argument anywhere. Beautifully done.

New Orleanian here. This is what I found out about my country when my world was destroyed. There are some wonderful Americans, but there are many awful, vile Americans that think it is just fine to add to the pain of people suffering. Last week I spent hours driving the still devastated neighborhoods of NoLa. Then I drove to the still devastated towns of coastal Mississippi. The people rebuilding are HEROES beyond what these petty posters can even begin to imagine. I use to be an American, but I have no country anymore. I would like to say I hope these posters get to experience what we have had to experience for the last 2 years, but in my heart I am not cruel enough to mean that. Citizenship use to mean more than a cost benefit ratio.

It's so sad to see such ill informed people who readily admit they have not read the news to form and express such damaging opinions about their fellow citizens. This is not debate club. This is about the lives of real Americans severely affected by a huge storm and the federal flood protection system that failed. Please, take a few minutes to learn what is really going on before posting nonsense on the Internet.

New Orleans as survived almost 300 years. How sad and pathetic that 21st century Americans can seriously believe that it's either not possible or not worth the effort to save.

And finally, Mardi Gras is February 5. Ever been? How about this year?

Peace,

Tim