More on New Orleans

I ran across an interesting item on the Drudge Report the other day. It was an advance report about tonight's "60 Minutes," when an expert reportedly will say that it would be pointless to rebuild New Orleans. Here's an excerpt from Drudge:

A natural disaster expert says it’s time New Orleans residents faced the fact that their city will be below sea level in 90 years. Prof. Tim Kusky advocates a gradual pull-out from the city, whose slow, steady slide into the sea was sped up enormously by Hurricane Katrina. . . .

“New Orleans is going to be 15 to 18 feet below sea level, sitting off the coast of North America surrounded by a 50 to 100-foot-tall levee system to protect the city,” says Kusky, a professor in the Earth Sciences Department at St. Louis University. He estimates this will happen in 90 years. “That’s the projection, because we are losing land on the Mississippi Delta at a rate of 25 to 30 square miles per year. That’s two acres per hour that are sinking below sea level,” he tells Pelley.

As the city assesses damage and plans to rebuild, Kusky believes there’s a better plan. “We should be thinking about a gradual pullout of New Orleans and starting to rebuild people’s homes, businesses and industry in places that can last more than 80 years,” he says. Instead, the law will allow residents to rebuild if their homes lie at the 100-year flood level, much of which was inundated by Katrina’s waters and would be put underwater again should levees fail.

Well, that all makes perfect sense, right? Apparently not. Here are the comments of one resident of New Orleans who will be quoted in the report:

With only half the former population expected to come back to the city, is [rebuilding] too much of a commitment for taxpayers? Is it practical? One resident thinks it’s a matter of pride. “The country has to decide whether it really is what we tell the world what we are,” says New Orleans city employee Greg Meffert, whose job is to assess damage there. “Because if we are that powerful…that focused…that committed to all of our citizens, then there is no decision to make. Of course you rebuild it.”

You know, he's right. This country does need to decide whether we are what we tell the world we are. Are we the God-defying people we show ourselves to be? Or are we perhaps a little more humble than that? I have to say, I'm afraid most of us see the situation exactly as Meffert sees it--a matter of pride.

As I read this report, I was reminded of the words of the opening credits from that cheesy action show "The Six Million Dollar Man" back in the '70s: "We can rebuild him. We have the technology." Well, we might have the technology to rebuild New Orleans, too, but the cost will be way more than $6 million and the outcome is likely to be something far worse than cheesy television.

GtG