Is it time to abandon New Orleans altogether?

[MaxPC]

Metro New Orleans is 6 ft/1.8 m BELOW SEA LEVEL in its lowest topography. It will be hit yet again by a hurricane (Delta).

Is it time to abandon this metropolis and move inland?

[Heirbyadoption]

A group I was in was actually discussing this idea a couple weeks ago. The concept sends lots of questions through my head. Such as:

Is it time for WHO to abandon it? The government? Those who have lived there for hundreds of years? How far inland should be evacuated? Are we talking mandatory evacuations? Is this morally acceptable? How do we compensate those giving up their properties or help them establish new homes and businesses? What incentive could be offered? What entity pays for that or enacts it...? Etc. Etc...

[Josh]

NO could start maintaining its own levees, like the Netherlands does.

[steve-in-kville]

Those who have lived there for hundreds of years?

Find me one modern day person who has lived in NO for hundreds of years, or anywhere for that matter!!

[steve-in-kville]

Is it time to abandon this metropolis and move inland?

Seriously, though... we were hoping to visit there in a few years. I hope its still there.

[Judas Maccabeus]

NO could start maintaining its own levees, like the Netherlands does.

The Dutch do not have to cope with hurricanes. In 1953 they had a failure that killed some 1800 people. Their system is good, but not foolproof. It is also VERY expensive to maintain.

J.M.

[Soloist]

Just remember the French built in a good spot and we came in and diverted the river and built.

Our levees are designed for category 3 storms. You might as well say we should abandon the entire coast line in the south as any part has been wiped out by a major storm before. New Orleans isn't that bad and the pump system was completely upgraded as well as quite a bit of the levees. Before you worry about evacuating that slime pool, evacuate the lower ninth ward permanently or any of the projects.

[Josh]

NO could start maintaining its own levees, like the Netherlands does.

The Dutch do not have to cope with hurricanes. In 1953 they had a failure that killed some 1800 people. Their system is good, but not foolproof. It is also VERY expensive to maintain.

J.M.

Then the people of New Orleans either have to start spending the money to maintain it, or they'll need to move elsewhere.

[Ken]

Metro New Orleans is 6 ft/1.8 m BELOW SEA LEVEL in its lowest topography. It will be hit yet again by a hurricane (Delta).

Is it time to abandon this metropolis and move inland?

Yes, probably. It will happen in the long term anyway due to sea level rise and subsidence (sinking of the land along the coast). But of course it isn't just New Orleans. Miami, Tampa, and frankly most of the cities along coastal Florida are probably also doomed. As well as Norfolk VA.

Florida is even less defensible than New Orleans because, due to the karst plain topography, the flooding will just seep under any levees or dikes that they build because the rock under the city is porous limestone like swiss cheese and not solid granite bedrock of the sort that is under the Netherlands or more northern cities like NYC where dikes and levees actually work.

If I were young and starting out a new career today, I'd be looking into civil engineering to mitigate sea level rise. There is going to be tremendous demand for that sort of expertise from cities around the planet over the next 50 years. The Dutch are currently the world leaders because US civil engineering schools are still focused on stuff like building freeways and dams and that sort of thing.

[Ken]

NO could start maintaining its own levees, like the Netherlands does.

The Dutch do not have to cope with hurricanes. In 1953 they had a failure that killed some 1800 people. Their system is good, but not foolproof. It is also VERY expensive to maintain.

J.M.

Then the people of New Orleans either have to start spending the money to maintain it, or they'll need to move elsewhere.

Do you feel the same about the rest of the people who live along the Mississippi flood plain from New Orleans all the way to Minneapolis? None of those towns within the Mississippi River watershed from Louisiana to the Dakotas actually pay for their own flood control levees. It's the Army Corps of Engineers that protects cities from Davenport and Des Moines to Tulsa, which are all on the same watershed as New Orleans.

I personally think we have botched a lot of flood control measures across the US. But New Orleans is hardly unique in its dependence on Federal flood control infrastructure. Nearly every town and city along the Mississippi and its tributaries relies on the same thing. That's a 20 state region.