The waters are slowly receding:
In a herculean task that could take months, engineers struggled to pump out the flooded city Tuesday, and the filthy waters were dropping noticeably. “I’m starting to see rays of light,” the mayor said.
The pumping began after the Army Corps of Engineers used rocks and sandbags over the Labor Day weekend to finally plug the 200-foot gap that let water spill into New Orleans and swamp 80 percent of the bowl-shaped, below-sea-level city in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
On Tuesday, the Corps said the area under water had fallen to about 60 percent.
“I’m starting to see water levels much lower than I’ve seen,” Mayor Ray Nagin said after surveying his city from the air. “Even in areas where the water was as high as the rooftops, I started to see parts of the buildings.”
I really do wonder how long this is going to take to get the city back to some semblance of “normal.” Six months? A year? 5 Years? Never?
And Mississippi, which didn’t get flooded to the extent of NO, but who really got hit much harder by the violence of the hurricane, will take just as long, if not longer.
Krista
That still just makes me shake my head in amazement. When you consider how much we’ve advanced scientifically, and yet we still have nothing better than rocks and sandbags.
Tim F
They tried using computers but it didn’t work.
JC
Well, for geopolitical reasons having to do with the port of New Orleans, a city has to be there to support the port – but New Orleans as we understand it probably won’t be there.
Something from the minimal subistence required to support the port, to about 20 percent of the local color of the old New Orleans – I’d say that spectrum is from the worst to the best that will be built back in New Orleans.
Because it IS a city beneath water level, there are good reasons not to build the city back to pre-Katrina levels – unless there is a commitment to apply Dutch standards of security to the levee system.
Krista
Do you think there will be that much care and planning put into it, or do you think (like me) that emotion will get in the way and that they’ll just want to get it rebuilt as fast as possible?
Davebo
JC
The Dutch standards, as they exist, won’t be enough should another Katrina hit New Orleans.
True, the Duth are great at flood control, but as the floods in 1995 showed, they are even better at evacuations. The biggest skill the Dutch have shown is not preventing flooding, but controlling which areas get flooded.
Steve S
normal?
Considering after they get the water out, they’re going to have to practically bulldoze every building to the ground and start over? A long time… Years.
I don’t know what all building materials they use down there. The buildings made of brick or concrete can probably be saved with some cleanup. Anything made of wood is gone. It’s not just that they’ve been waterlogged… the water is horribly polluted.
ET
Well I have spent a number of years on the Gulf Coast and I will say it took casinos and 30+ years to recover from Camille. Of course there was no reason the rebuild the Gulf Coast fast in the 1970’s now there are casinos and more life/people so I doubt it will take that long. Of course considering the number of trees that were felled, it might take that long for the green to come back like it was.