Why bother rebuilding?

[Curious Mickey]

I know I'll be flamed away but why rebuild New Orleans? Why not just leave it under water as a lost city?

Think of how expensive and time consuming reconstruction will be:
-fixing the levees and pumps
-rebuilding infrastructure and roads
-cleaning up water and ground pollution
-replanting the dead vegetation
-bulldozing all the buildings since they can't be structurally sound sitting in water for as long as they will be. The mold would just be rampant.
-dealing with everything that's IN the water now (dead animals, snakes, flooded above-ground cemetaries, and whatever else is rotting away)

Why not just relocate New Orleans a little to the North?

 

[Beauty]

I'm not from New Orleans but I can tell you why to rebuild the Coast,

Because its home! It has history, it has memories, its beautiful. Should we just go ahead and relocate Miami? What about Key West? Tampa? The Space Coast? Mobile, Pensacola.

 

[Southern4sure]

Are you saying if you lost everything you own except the clothes on your back that you'd want to leave the home you had probably your entire life? Would you call your "home" worthless?

 

[aprilgail2]

Are you saying if you lost everything you own except the clothes on your back that you'd want to leave the home you had probably your entire life? Would you call your "home" worthless?

I would be afraid to go back to my "home" if it was under 25 feet of water, mold, parasites and who knows waht else will be breeding everywhere.....if everything has to be torn down then it is no longer "home" to me...if my job was gone then I would surely set up home someplace else.....

 

[jgmklmhem]

IMO I do think parts need to be rebuilt. Especially the essential port. I also think the history that is left should be preserved as best as possible as well. I do think however that building it to the point of a major city again might be too much just based on geography (the whole bowl thing and the fact all the weight was causing the city to sink).

 

[Doc and Family]

I may be wrong, but it appears as if the OP didn't have the guts to post the question under his/her real name.

They sure seem to understand a whole bunch about posting here..getting flamed, etc., to have that as their first post.

Anyway, the question about rebuilding is legitimate..then again, why rebuild San Francisco after the earthquake, or areas on California's west coast after the mudslides?

The area around New Orleans was my home for 43 years and I can see pros and cons to rebuilding...but I think the people that still live there, or choose to return there as the case may be...should be entitled to the same opportunities as those who live on fault lines are on sides of hills that wash away...they should be given the chance to rebuild their "homes"...whatever we may think of them.

Just my $0.02 worth.

 

[thelionqueen]

I know I'll get flamed, but I am ready. I know there is a lot of history in the area, I know it is historic and people's homes. With all that said, it is BELOW sea level!! Undoubtedly, without question, this is going to happen again. It may be in a few years, it may be in a few decades, it may be next week, but it will happen.

Why spend all that money to rebuild, when you are going to have to do it again and again?

Why not build sensibly in an area that is somewhat protected from this type thing? I know every area has it's own vulnerabilities, but building a city, next to a huge lake and below sea level is questionable.

I am not suggesting anything at all except the location is unbelievably unstable and will go through this again at some point. I know what has been lost is absolutely unbearable, but wouldn't it be even more unbearable to rebuild it just to have it destroyed again??? Just my thoughts

 

[OceanAnnie]

I may be wrong, but it appears as if the OP didn't have the guts to post the question under his/her real name.

They sure seem to understand a whole bunch about posting here..getting flamed, etc., to have that as their first post.

I've noticed a lot of new posters that have started similar threads lately. Interesting.

 

[wdwpjs]

So in other words people need to build only where it is safe??? How about the beach? The beautiful cliffs in Ca., along the rivers in Tenn.? Iknow I will get flamed here but i just dont agree with that!!!!! I grew up in NO and would go back and live there again. Pensacola had Ivan last year and had alot of devastation. I drive out of my neighborhood everyday and see houses that are still unrepairable. (i live near the beach). We came together and rebuilt northwest Fl. just like NO will be rebuilt. If nobody rebuilt after a natural disaster then where would people continue with their lives????

 

[lucky_bunni]

Honestly, I've thought about that too. Why spend the money and all the time rebuiling in an area that will almost certainly be destroyed again... at any time? However, like others said there is a history there just like other American cities that sit on not-so-ideal sites. New Orleans deserves the same opportunity to rebuild. I hope there is some way to rebuild that particular city smarter though. I'm not an engineer, but if the whole city will basically be leveled, isn't it possible to build most of the land up to sea level? No doubt it would be a huge job but now that they're starting with pretty much a blank slate. Look what they can do now with land reclaimation (HK Disneyland) or building land up such as for WDW. It would be a larger scale perhaps. I think it would be unthinkable to rebuild with the same or similar water control systems and rebuild the entire city at the same level.

 

[bengalbelle]

Why not just relocate New Orleans a little to the North?

Just a little to the north, where?

 

[eeyore kelly]

My heritage is in NO. My ancestors settled there. I know it will be a pain to rebuild, but it is one of the oldest cities, and has one of the biggest ports in the world. You can't run a port from a little north of NO.

I can understand the sentiments, but once you understand the history and what it gives to this country, I don't see how you can't rebuild it.

If I follow the OOP's logic on NO, does that mean she wants to relocate gulf port, ocean springs, biloxi, and mobile up north. Or how about we relocate california a little east because they have those pesky landslides and earthquakes, or we will relocate florida up north, becaue it just sticks out there begging a hurricane to hit it. And we will relocate the southern east coast a little west because a hurricane could hit it too.

Following this logic will all end up in the plains states. Oh wait, we will have to relocate them to because of tornado alley and the mississippi river can flood.

Hmmm... where would we all live?

 

[goin2disneyagain]

I'm not from New Orleans but I can tell you why to rebuild the Coast,

Because its home! It has history, it has memories, its beautiful. Should we just go ahead and relocate Miami? What about Key West? Tampa? The Space Coast? Mobile, Pensacola.

Key West, Tampa, Miami and Pensacola are not at least 80% flooded and destroyed. I understand what the OP is saying. They can rebuild but that area should never have been a city to begin with due to it being below sea level. This will most likely happen again.

Also understand that a lot of people being interviewed can not even fathom the idea of coming back. They don't have a home anymore so they don't have anything to come back to. A lot of these people will probably end up relocating to the cities they are being evacuated to. It may bring back too many bad memories for some people to go back.

 

[tiggersmom2]

YES...it should be rebuilt and re-engineered as it should have been DECADES back!!! Scientist knew this catastrophy was going to happen and wrote articles about it countless times. I am sure the politicians knew too! This grand city should be rebuilt and given the attention it needed years ago.

 

[FoodLover]

it is BELOW sea level!!QUOTE]

Yeah, well, so is The Netherlands. Maybe we should move Holland a little bit to the East. I'm sure Germany won't mind.

This whole debate is so incredibly offensive at a time when we haven't even resolved the initial crisis. As many as a million Americans have just found themselves suddenly displaced and homeless. Comments like "we shouldn't even bother rebuilding New Orleans" are terribly harmful to the morale of those who are struggling to put their lives back together.

I guess it's not bad enough that the survivors of this disaster have no place to live right now -- let's also suggest that they will never be able to go back to the city they (and in many cases, their ancestors going back almost 200 years) have called home! Nice.

Really, how insensitive can you be?

 

[LisaR]

it is BELOW sea level!!QUOTE]

Yeah, well, so is The Netherlands. Maybe we should move Holland a little bit to the East. I'm sure Germany won't mind.

This whole debate is so incredibly offensive at a time when we haven't even resolved the initial crisis. As many as a million Americans have just found themselves suddenly displaced and homeless. Comments like "we shouldn't even bother rebuilding New Orleans" are terribly harmful to the morale of those who are struggling to put their lives back together.

I guess it's not bad enough that the survivors of this disaster have no place to live right now -- let's also suggest that they will never be able to go back to the city they (and in many cases, their ancestors going back almost 200 years) have called home! Nice.

Really, how insensitive can you be?

This is a discussion board. People are discussing possibilities, theories, ideas, etc. I am not saying this with the slightest bit of insensitivity but I am POSITIVE that this discussion is NOT "harmful to the morale of those struggling to put their lives back together." Those people are looking for food, water and showers right now. They are not surfing the Dis. I don't see any harm in discussing this. Personally, I am not sure if they should or shouldn't rebuild the city. I like reading others opinions on the subject. Sorry that you find it so insensitive. I find it interesting.

Lisa

 

[mark&sue]

I am from the UK and have visited US seven times now but did not visit New Orleans as too busy going to WDW, DL, Las Vegas and New York. I feel I have missed out on seeing such a beautiful city. I hope it can be rebuilt and more people visit and make it a prosperous place to live and work in the future.



Susan

 

[FoodLover]

I am POSITIVE that this discussion is NOT "harmful to the morale of those struggling to put their lives back together." Those people are looking for food, water and showers right now. They are not surfing the Dis.

You just don't know how wrong you are. 80% of the city evacuated before the storm, remember? The majority of those folks are either in hotels or staying with family and friends. They sure as hell ARE here on the DIS and other boards, eagerly watching the news, etc.

I think I can speak with some authority on this subject since my husband's immediate family, as well as other extended family and friends are all in the situation I just described. They are spread all over the country and more stressed than you can imagine. Most are glued to the computer, which is currently the only source of "local" New Orleans news.

Most of them are still a bit in denial... imagine trying to accept that your comfy middleclass existence is gone and you may have to start your life completely from scratch. They just want to go home and see if they have a house left! Their lives are on hold. They don't know how long it will be before they can go home. They don't know whether to put their kids in school where they're living now, or what. Their jobs are gone. Their friends are scattered to the winds.

Justify your musings all you want as an intellectual exercise. It's damn personal to those who are suddenly homeless, I can tell you.

 

[LisaR]

You just don't know how wrong you are. 80% of the city evacuated before the storm, remember? The majority of those folks are either in hotels or staying with family and friends. They sure as hell ARE here on the DIS and other boards, eagerly watching the news, etc.

I think I can speak with some authority on this subject since my husband's immediate family, as well as other extended family and friends are all in the situation I just described. They are spread all over the country and more stressed than you can imagine. Most are glued to the computer, which is currently the only source of "local" New Orleans news.

Most of them are still a bit in denial... imagine trying to accept that your comfy middleclass existence is gone and you may have to start your life completely from scratch. They just want to go home and see if they have a house left! Their lives are on hold. They don't know how long it will be before they can go home. They don't know whether to put their kids in school where they're living now, or what. Their jobs are gone. Their friends are scattered to the winds.

Justify your musings all you want as an intellectual exercise. It's damn personal to those who are suddenly homeless, I can tell you.

I do understand what you are saying. However, I still stand by my comment that we are NOT offending them by discussing this subject matter. Those people that do have access to a computer are not surfing the Dis boards. They are looking for factual information. They are not looking for personal commentaries from a bunch of us that aren't there. This is nothing more then a discussion board and that is exactly what people are doing.......discussing things.

Lisa

 

[FoodLover]

Those people that do have access to a computer are not surfing the Dis boards.

Wrong. Maybe you should look down the list of threads on this very forum. I see several on the first two pages that were started by people who evacuated New Orleans!

Yep, it's a discussion forum. That means I get to discuss what I think, too. And I think people who suggest just abandoning an entire city and "moving it a bit North" are both insensitive and ignorant.

That's all I have to say on this subject. I'm moving on to something more constructive now.