SocraticGadfly: Gustav update: NOLA will get hit bad, it appears

September 01, 2008

Gustav update: NOLA will get hit bad, it appears

Location, tide, high storm surge could collude

As of late last night, it looked to me like the eye was set to make landfall somewhere between Morgan City and Houma, close enough to New Orleans to do serious damage with the trailing east-side winds.

Also, landfall will be near high tide, with a spring tide due to the moon near new.

A storm surge of more than 15 feet is possible. Say goodbye to your westside levees.

So, if it is as destructive as Katrina, should we (on the federal dime, to any degree), rebuild NOLA? I say no.

Beyond that, to riff on the other geographically-focused national disaster to which parts of America are prone, we don’t have federal earthquake insurance. It’s high time for Washington to get out of flood insurance, IMO, for both fiscal and environmental reasons.

At the least, require all rebuilding in NOLA, as part of federal flood insurance checks, to be done above sea level. If that means much of NOLA becomes a giant cow pasture, so be it.

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