New Orleans is not the only city in history to be submerged by climate changes and the forces of Mother Nature and it will not be the last. Today Bangladesh, Venice, and many other cities are threatened by waters; in past periods there was Atlantis, which whether myth, legend or reality warns us of that eventuality. Hurricane Katrina indirectly created a submerged city event. It was not the original storm surge which breached the city's specially designed and engineered 350-mile levee system, although it did cause significant weakening. The rainwater draining into the over flowing lake was more than the weakened levee could hold. We are silly to think that we are safe from Mother Nature during this increased Hurricane Cycle, which could last three decades, of which we are only one-third the way thru. Does it makes sense to rebuild it? Probably not, but we probably will anyway. When we do; what method should be used to guarantee it would not happen again? The costs after a disaster are a strain on our Nation's budget at a time when we are already cutting costs and watching our outflows. Even outgoing Chairman Greenspan of the Federal Reserve warns us to be careful of expenditures. It pays to be reality based with the disaster relief funds we are spending with FEMA. If we are closing military bases for BRAC, watching our wartime expenditures then we need a national discussion on rebuilding policies. Either we fund research on Hurricane prevention and killing of future super storms and also minimize the out flow of taxpayer's monies on rebuilding and FEMA or we will be putting our entire nation at risk. All we are and all we have built is at risk if we do not think logically. If we rebuild New Orleans we must do it in such a way that it will never be at risk from any storm or event of Mother Nature. We need to Think on this and be honest with ourselves, after all this is only one storm and one event in the history of our nation, can we afford them all? |
