Cities Aren’t Forever

The city of New Orleans is not going to be rebuilt.
~
As much as it causes heartache to those of us who love New Orleans — the whole place, not just the one of myth and memory — cities are not forever.

When [the insurance industry] looks at the devastation here, it will evaluate the risk from toxicity ~ before it decides to write new insurance — without which nothing can be rebuilt.

~ Distinct from the city are the region’s ports, lining 172 miles of both banks of the Mississippi, as well as points on the Gulf.

For example, the largest in the Western Hemisphere is the 54-mile stretch of the Port of South Louisiana. It is centered on La Place, 20 miles upriver from New Orleans. It moved 199 million tons of cargo in 2003, including the vast bulk of the river’s grain. That is more than twice as much as the Port of New Orleans ~.

The Port of Baton Rouge, almost as big as the Port of New Orleans, was not damaged.

Also, downstream, there is the LOOP ~. The dazzling Offshore Oil Port, for example, employs only about 100 people. Even the specialized Port of New Orleans, which handles things like coffee, steel and cruise boats, only needs 2,500 people on an average day.

New Orleans IS going to be rebuilt. There’s so much money waiting to be spent.

I don’t see why it can’t be a requirement to be above sea level to get funded, but I don’t live there.