Thinking about Lousiana.

[mcroft]

My sister lives in St. Tammany Parish. I don't think they'll go home for a long time.

For everyone from Louisiana, I offer Jackson Browne's light apocapella ballad, Before the Deluge:

Some of them were dreamers
And some of them were fools
Who were making plans and thinking of the future
With the energy of the innocent
They were gathering the tools
They would need to make their journey back to nature
While the sand slipped through the opening
And their hands reached for the golden ring
With their hearts they turned to each other’s heart for refuge
In the troubled years that came before the deluge

Some of them knew pleasure
And some of them knew pain
And for some of them it was only the moment that mattered
And on the brave and crazy wings of youth
They went flying around in the rain
And their feathers, once so fine, grew torn and tattered
And in the end they traded their tired wings
For the resignation that living brings
And exchanged love’s bright and fragile glow
For the glitter and the rouge
And in the moment they were swept before the deluge

Now let the music keep our spirits high
And let the buildings keep our children dry
Let creation reveal it’s secrets by and by
By and by--
When the light that’s lost within us reaches the sky

Some of them were angry
At the way the earth was abused
By the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power
And they struggled to protect her from them
Only to be confused
By the magnitude of her fury in the final hour
And when the sand was gone and the time arrived
In the naked dawn only a few survived
And in attempts to understand a thing so simple and so huge
Believed that they were meant to live after the deluge

Now let the music keep our spirits high
And let the buildings keep our children dry
Let creation reveal it’s secrets by and by
By and by--
When the light that’s lost within us reaches the sky

Comments

[lintra.livejournal.com]

I was wondering where she lives. I'm really glad they evacuated.

Very touching song.

[mcroft.livejournal.com]

They moved from Mandeville to Covington. Mandeville is on the north shore, and Covington is north of it. While all of St. Tammany is closed, Covington didn't list a flood line, which they did for Mandeville.

Ginger's not sure they'll rebuild NOLA. I am.

[lintra.livejournal.com]

I think they'll rebuild, and here's why I think they will:
There's money to be made in oil logistics and tourism. As long as there is money to be made, they'll do it.

Now, will the stuff that was uninsured get rebuilt? Maybe not, but that land will get sold and someone will build something on it. I mean, I'd buy a piece of land in NOLA if I could get it for the right place. I may have to evacuate every so often, and I may loose whatever asset I place on that land, but the rest of the time, NOLA!

[djinnthespazz.livejournal.com]

*shakes head*

Still of the opinion that they shouldn't rebuild. Cities have been abandoned in civilizations before.

[lintra.livejournal.com]

I could see that when the direct hit gets them. The thing that takes out all the levees. It'll happen too - it's just a matter of time. This is bad but it could have been even worse. The SuperDome wouldn't be good enough for a direct hit, I bed. I mean, this one took off the roof, practically, as it was.

But usually cities don't get abandoned until they really have no salvagable value. NOLA still has salvagable value. Pompei...

[mcroft.livejournal.com]

They'd rebuild something on top of the graves of the last city if they had to. It's the mouth of the Mississippi, it's the center for a million dollars of gulf oil production, and it's the home of Southern Jazz and Mardi Gras.

Plus people have lived there for almost 300 years. If your ancestors were speaking french in the quarter before George Washinton was born, you'll be back.

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

They'll rebuild. Sure, lots of the city is damaged, much even destroyed. Joe had an interesting thought -- perhaps they'll raise the level of the city? Seattle did that for its downtown after a devastating fire leveled it (in late 19th century? early 20th?) to solve an unpleasant high-tide induced sewage-backwash.

That said, I'm doubly glad that your family got out.

[prince-corwin.livejournal.com]

They'll rebuild, for exactly the reasons Lintra stated. (And speaking of those... Good God, the devastation up and down the coast is mind-boggling. This is going to be a rough, rough winter for the country.)

But perhaps they might consider rebuilding not-quite-in-the-basin.

Good luck to your sister and her family.

[mcroft.livejournal.com]

After Galveston was hit with the 1900 hurricane, they raised the city 17 feet. In 1915 another one hit and was supposed to be the same force and the damage was orders of magnetude less.

According to Wikipedia, NOLA's site was chosen because it was on high ground.

[prince-corwin.livejournal.com]

...Compared to what, the river bed?

At any rate, filling in that basin would be... a challenging earthworks project. I have no problem with giving Mother Nature the finger. I'm all in favor of it.

I'd just hate to see the rebuilt city suffer the same damn fate twenty or thirty years down the line.

[mcroft.livejournal.com]

Compared to all the other sites available in 1718.