Columns

In 2010, my wife and I visited New Orleans about five years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. We had a guided tour of the devastation caused by these hurricanes. Now Hurricane Ida has devastated the City again with similar destruction..  

New Orleans is on a sinking delta below sea level and due to human and environmental factors, the City is sinking about two inches per year and is projected to sink three feet lower than it is today if present trends continue. The City is surrounded by two large flood-prone bodies of water — the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. To maintain the Mississippi River through New Orleans to the sea, levees have to continually be maintained along the river from well above New Orleans. As the City is below sea level, water cannot flow out but has to be pumped out. 

Climate change compounds the problem. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) delivered a doom and gloom report on climate change predicting that we can no longer stop global warming from intensifying over the next 30 years and the role of human influence on the climate system is undisputed. The report is described as a “Code Red for Humanity.” The best we can do now is slow climate change down and prepare to deal with its effects such as intensified storms, wildfires, droughts, flooding, heat waves, rising sea levels, etc. The City can expect more intense and frequent tropical storms. 

After Katrina and Rita, then Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois) had the temerity to suggest that New Orleans not spend the billions necessary to rebuild but just simply abandon the City. But as New Orleanians Judy Deck told us during our visit, “If there was no New Orleans, America would just be a bunch of free people dying of boredom.” Of course, New Orleans will try to rebuild.