Originally posted by bentleywarren: My question is why on earth did anyone ever build there in the first place. Perhaps the Dutch are wondering the same thing.
The 'old' parts of NO didn't flood. French Quarter saw minimal flooding, the Garden District saw minimal flooding. From Wikipedia:
Quote:
New Orleans was founded in 1718 by ...<blah,blah>... The site was selected because it was a rare bit of natural high ground along the flood-prone banks of the lower Mississippi,...<blah,blah>...
The city districts suffered the most flooding were the ones populated at the end of the last century to house poor sharecroppers. I think the city planners knew about the problems (they had to keep rising the levees), and I also think they didn't really give a damn about them. Tell me anything in this world what is not driven by short-term financial/political interests.
...and about the Dutch: they didn't really have any other place to go. You might as well as the British and the Japanese why are they living on islands... both had their fair share of floodings in the last 1000 yrs.
