NOLA "temporary" evacuation can be turned into permanent abandonment.

[Divernan]

The latest announcement I read from the Army Corps of Engineers (on another DU thread) started out predicting a 3 to 6 month period before residents could be allowed back. At the end there was a qualifying statement that that time coud be "longer" (with no time projection) depending on other factors like rainfall, more tropical storms, etc. Since the Corps has never faced a task like this, one questions whether they're pulling these time projections out of their "hat", to put it politely.

On the one hand, it boggles the mind to consider the abandonment of a whole, major city in this country. But historically, cities built in areas subject to natural disaster, have been abandoned. The most famous example is Pompeii,buried under several metres of volcanic ash from Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. The fear of another volcanic eruption and the horror associated with the initial destructive eruption kept people from rebuilding in the area. On the Caribbean island of Montserrat, much of the island was abandoned, including the town of Plymouth, following a volcanic erruption in 1995. Venice and all of Holland are similarly below sea level, but the weather patterns in that part of the world do not expose them to Force 5 hurricanes.
There were other cities in places like Inida and Egypt which were abandoned for lack of water supply when long term droughts/ ie changes in rainfall patterns, occurred.

In the case of New Orleans, if rebuilt, it would still be below sea level in an area ever more vulnerable to the increasing number and intensity of tropical storms/hurricanes, From the descriptions and pictures of damage/destruction, it seems that much of the city would have to be bulldozed and then completely rebuilt. Where will the money for that come from? As strong as the emotional ties are of the residents to the area, in the long run it will come down to the economics of rebuilding versus abandonment. Forecasts of global warming have warned for decades that the gradually increasing ocean levels will force the abandonments of coastal housing. This hurricane has brought home that message to an overwhelming number of residents along the coast. If such a decision - to abandon the city - is made, I think it will not be bluntly announced, but strung out in a series of delays - during which people will begin to live their lives elsewhere - find work, find housing, etc. Their NOLA world will end not with a bang, but with a whimper.

[htuttle]

1. Whether it ends up as the first recent city abandoned to rising oceans...

...or not, I'm fairly certain it won't be the last one.

[xultar]

2. I think that is why a lot of folks wouldn't leave along with protecting

property etc.

[ladjf]

3. The nasty , below sea level goo is not fit to be built upon.

Perhaps a new site could be found either down or up river. Not too promising but maybe better than building new structures over dangerous and permanent noxious wastes. The sea level problem could be circumvented with enough money to build and entire table, 20 ft above sea level by sinking steel pilings down 70 ft to the bed rock.
Expensive but doable. The entire city would be on stilts. That still doesn't solve the poisonous goo problem.