This is a long video, but the beginning is interesting if you like engineering, and classic Civil Engineering. They are putting in a surge protector similar to London and other places, where the problem right now is extreme flooding during violent storms. Like a lot of these places, they are also raising houses fifteen feet and making them capable of withstanding a direct hit by a telephone pole or whatever. While the Corps of Engineers likes to claim they are rushing in order to help prevent disaster, the sad truth is they are rushing because the real estate market is in the toilet. Local rents have already increased dramatically wherever houses are above the water line, which is a relief, because New Orleans had become infamous as a huge slum. Not that I have anything against slums, but slums are what new houses are often built on and it is just the cycle of life for a city. Brooklyn was a slum once, and some say its still another planet altogether. Its already been noted that many of these surge protectors will not help if the oceans continue to rise. Who knows, New Orleans could eventually resemble Venice, and Canal Street could become a real canal. The city is located where it is, because the entire state is a swamp and they needed a port for ships going up and down the Mississippi, but they were not disciplined engineers like the Dutch. Even the Dutch screwed up, but its money that does most of the talking when it comes to real estate.
The Mexican cartels, Mafia, and others would beg to differ. The Pentagon still insists it doesn't matter how much money the Japanese have, they can only buy the parts of Hawaii they approve of.
The US coined a new phrase when it comes to doing business with the Japanese, "Gunboat Diplomacy". We point our guns at them and they demand more money.
Then you will lose, because all the US has to do is point our guns at them, and the value of the Yen goes down, while the value of the dollar goes up.
Could not have said it better myself, except it should be "Damned Dams". They will make lovely coral wreaths when the oceans rise.
There's no "could eventually" about it. The last time the planet was as warm as it is now, sea levels were over 6 meters higher than they are now, and they will be again as ice continues to melt. One thing about the location of the city that most people don't know is that over the past 2,000 years the course of the big river has changed many times. It's what rivers do. The location of the mouth of the Mississippi where it is now is temporary, and it reflected a very recent course change, the latest of many, at the time Europeans first sited a settlement where New Orleans now is. Holding back Gulf of Mexico water, or attempting to manage the course of a river system that large, is a losing proposition. That doesn't mean that we humans won't try. It simply means we will fail, and, when cost is considered, we will fail spectacularly. New Orleans has no long-term future as a city. Nor do many coastal cities worldwide. A floating large-scale port facility is slightly more likely than the continuation of a large urban settlement there, but ultimately also doomed to be declared a failure and abandoned.
new orleans was always under water. canal street was just that, a canal. with branches along bourbon st. rampart and many others. you could sail your canoe right into the quarter and trade your goods
Erie Boulevard in Schenectady used to be the Erie canal. The US had lots of canals before the age of automobiles.
