TW the lake dropped 2 feet because that water flowed into the city. The lake will drop another 2 feet and that will happen by all that water will flow into the city. It is not good news.
Not according to what I heard this morning. The lake rises and falls just like any other body of water. Obviously, the lake was high after the hurricane and will eventually recede to normal levels, which is below the levee breach. Most of the water from the lake will flow back into the gulf, via lake Borgne and the marsh land to its east. Certainly some of that water making its way into the city is going to reduce the lake's level, but it's also going down because it's flowing back out to the gulf.
At some point, there has to be serious consideration of whether it makes sense to rebuild completely, or consider partial rebuilding. There are some places in the world that are uninhabitable due to their location. Some of that analysis should take place, before deciding to basically make a replica of NOLA.
There are ring levees all over Louisiana, not just in the coastal zone but up the Mississippi River flood plain well inland. They are needed in areas where the water can come from any direction. The flip side of the coin is that they fill with rainwater and must be pumped. Also if the levee is topped, the inside fills and cannot easily be drained until the flooding outside goes down. The trouble with levees that can withstand a worst-possible-scenario storm (Katrina was close, but not the worst possible) is that they would have to be huge. Not only would they have to be much wider in order to be stable at the new heights, but they would weigh a tremendous amount and subsidence would begin immediately atop the bottomless mud of coastal Louisiana. The existing levees suffer the same problems. Storm surges can come from every direction depending on the storm size and course so the entire ring has to be very tall and thick. I think Louisiana is going to have to consider retreating from some low areas, because we can't protect everything. Perhaps many of these former backswamps should never have been developed in the first place. Coastal land loss in Louisiana is real and the situation will only get worse. N.O. is also subject to major river flooding. Some day in the distant future, New Orleans may have to be abandoned. The first high ground along the Mississippi isn't found until Baton Rouge -- 232 river miles from the head-of-passes.
Its almost like we have tried for many years to back Mother Nature into a corner, and now she is pissed and coming out swinging.
Federal martial law has been declared for New Orleans. As a result the Pentagon ordered those choppers not to plug up the levee and Nagin is furious. They want this city to go down. Nagin: White House ignores pleas to save New Orleans; helicopters diverted http://www.total411.info/ 8:07 pm CDT -- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has given a remarkable interview to WWL TV, broadcast on wwltv.com. Nagin said that the National Guard's Blackhawk helicopter carrying the sandbags to plug the hole in the levee on 17th St. Canal was diverted to rescue misssions. Nagin said he called the governor, and that he and other state and local officials are unsuccesfully trying to get through to the White House to ask if the people in Washington know what they're doing. The White House switchboard is 202-456-1414. To ask the La. Air National Guard to ignore the Pentagon's treasonous orders and plug the hole, call (504) 271-6262 . By the way, the Bush administration cut funding for hurricane/levee protection this year when the hurricane cycle has been strengthening. People need to start raising hell about this.
