It's a big mistake to keep people out, as if they were a load on government.

It's the people doing things for each other that gets things done.

Furthermore it scales with population - the bigger the disaster, the bigger the supply of people fixing things.

The people in the city are the problem right now, looting, murdering, and shooting at military helicopters.

We should drop a bomb and forget about that shit hole.

I was kidding about the bomb. But N.O. has always been a cest pool.

NO was a grand party, but it's over.

If it's ever rebuilt, it should become an amusement park on water (ie, don't rebuild the destroyed levies).

BTW, I was fortunate enough to visit NO a few years back--I loved it and will miss the city greatly,

I feel saddened by the loss the people there face. I actually have nothing major holding me back, no job, no house to take care of, no children. I do have my siblings and mom, so it is very tempting to try to go down there and help. I know that mom and half my friends and relatives would freak out though if they heard me thinking about that. Hell, I don't even know if I'll be able to get to any parts of the disaster according to some of the street congestion and flood reports.

The cost to rebuild there will be high and I wonder if it makes economic sense to rebuild. A big discussion is on that field right now at KdT.

Dredge a channel big enough for supertankers about 20 miles inland (wherever there is solid ground), and dredge out a harbor there. Use the dredgings to raise the ground level, if needed. Rebuild there. Just keep the old French Quarter as a tourist attraction (it was built on the highest and driest part of the swamp that was handy to the waterfront, so I'd expect it to be less vulnerable.)

One thing that about the N.O. situation that really chaps my ass is how the race card is being played. The NAACP and similar groups are saying that if the prodominate population in N.O. was white the relief efforts would have come a lot sooner. What the hell do these people want? Even with military assistance it takes time to evac a metropolitan area. So far the only thing I have seen are the people down there whinning and crying and screaming "help me, help me". I don't see to many of them pullilng together and helping each other. What I do see is quite a lot of looting, which is understandable, to a point. I mean if they're taking food, water, diapers, medicane, things of that nature, then I don't blame them. But why the hell would someone take tv's and stereo's when there is electricty? And to make matters worse relief workers are being shot at. The people are complaining about how the police are doing nothing when the police are just as hungry, thirsty, and homeless as the rest of them. I say that if you want to help them then give them absolutley nothing. Force them to help themselves for a change.

Mark,

Dredging isn't likely to work, especially at the mouth of the Mississippi. The river goes where it wants, and dredging out a channel just means more maintenance dredging in the future.