Miscellaneous

About a week ago, I wrote a post responding to those who question New Orleans? right to exist. In a nutshell: this city did not come into existence because 1 million or so people made a lifestyle choice to live in a swamp vulnerable to hurricanes. This city came into existence because the Mississippi River happens to empty into the Gulf of Mexico near here. The site where the city was founded happens to be the highest ground anywhere near the mouth of the river. New Orleans became an American city (sort of) because Thomas Jefferson recognized the economic and strategic importance of America?s having a port city located right here.

That was last week?s history lesson. This week, I want to correct what seems to be a widespread misunderstanding about what happened here four years ago. This city did not flood just because a hurricane passed close by. It flooded because of engineering failures. The levees failed to perform according to spec, breaking in several places along the outfall canals. Result: instead of the canals emptying into Lake Pontchartrain, the lake emptied through the broken canal levees into the city.

I thought everyone knew these facts. But I?ve seen too much stuff on TV lately talking about how the hurricane did all kind of bad stuff to the city, with no mention of the levee failures. Katrina certainly did some bad stuff all by herself near New Orleans (e.g. Slidell, St. Bernard Parish, Plaquemines Parish, the Mississippi gulf coast). But the city itself would have escaped with little worse than widespread wind damage if the levees had done what they were supposed to do. Instead, the levees broke, the city drowned, and around 1,000 people died who otherwise would have ridden it out okay.

These facts are uncomfortable. Why? Because if New Orleans is here because America needs it here, and if New Orleans drowned because of American engineering failures, then America is responsible for what happened here four years ago. Hence the urge to deny the facts and concoct an alternate reality, one that redirects the responsibility elsewhere?mainly to the victims.