This is a "Popular Myth" ?????????????????????

[Huckster]

Indeed, the MRGO is a failure ecologically and economically and it should be closed. Here are a couple of questions of mine (A2K, please forgive my ignorance on the geography of the area; I am assuming nothing and asking everything)...

1. Is the surge from Katrina in NO East related directly to channeling through the MRGO or simply over the "land" that was destroyed by it? In other words, even if the MRGO had been closed as of August 28, 2005, how much flooding would have occurred simply as a result of the canal's previous existence in contributing to subsidence and erosion which thereby could have permitted the surge from Lake Borgne to move further inland?

2. Granted, the MRGO should be closed, but are there any plans to restore the lands destroyed by the MRGO? Would simply building a levee at the mouth of the MRGO at Breton/Chandeleur Sounds ensure that nothing like Katrina could happen again? My guess is no, given the amount of wetlands loss between Lake Borgne and the MRGO, but I admit, the closing of the MRGO is at very least where we need to start.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Okay, I'm going to give this one more go, to the best of my ability to do so.

I had this nice LONG answer to all your questions, Huckster... and when I tried to enter, the computer froze on me, and I ain't about to go through all that again. But I will try to give you a quicker synopsis of them along with a link or two if you really want to pursue these queries.

1.) The surge in N.O. East wad definitely a direct result of the MRGO and only the MRGO. There was no oversweeping of the land as was seen in the tragedy along the Mississippi Gulf coast. What you had here was a prescription for disaster that was filled once before in 1965 with Betsy, and apparently the patient hadn't learned much because it was renewed in 2005. As to your question about if the MRGO being closed the day before Katrina I suspect that the flooding almost certainly still would have occurred but that is moot as it's 20-20 hindsight. The time to close it is now, and that is with much more than just a levee closing off the jetties and outlet to the Gulf. Had it been closed after BETSY, like it should have... this tragedy would almost never have reached this magnitude. Better yet, if it hadn't been built at all--but again.. hindsight. The thing is this, New Orleans stood at the plate and watched nature deal her strike one (Betsy) and strike two (Katrina) and the question it REALLY needs to look at with serious introspection at this point in time is: Do we sit on our hands and wait for the "knockout" strike three? Or do we knock one out of the park and SAVE OUR CITY! Will the interests of saving human lives actually get highest priority, or will we have learned absolutely nothing, and once again allow the icons of greed, avarice, corruption, and profit to prevail at the cost of the former?

2.) The trip of a thousand miles begins with the first step... okay, cliche; but appropriate here. SOMEONE needs to take that step. And YES there are plans to restore the lost wetlands--some better than others. To begin with CLOSE THE MRGO NOW! In an almost bizarre twist, Katrina did us one backhanded favor--piling up a LOT of silt into that waterway--do NOT dredge it. Let this sucker FILL IN. It can be done. There are engineers and other scientists working on plans to do things from planting more salt-tolerant grasses to hold the land in place, to actually diverting the river allowing it to redeposit some of that much needed sediment in the wetland areas. Contrary to your perceptions (understandable as they are) this plan has been researched and IS doable. We just need some of the rest of the nation to be willing to walk the walk and stop the stupid talking. I have a link to just ONE of many plans being thought out below

http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20060414235232data_trunc_sys.shtml

There are others, and a quick cursory search on Google or Yahoo should provide you with any number of others. Yes, these wetlands can be restored but two things need to be understood:
1.) It's not going to happen overnight, it will take time and effort.
2.) It's got to start NOW... beginning with closing that hideous death trap called the MRGO, and seeing that it completely fills back in by both natural, and man-assissted means.

MRGO NEEDS TO GO!

A2K

[SeaBrz_FL]

A2K,

This is heart-wrenching, and your photos and explanations are something the whole world needs to see so we can eliminate the bigotted opinions that now exist about "why so many stayed".

I know, as a 5th generation Florida native, we have fought off MRGO-type request for decades. As you might imagine, cutting a canal across our peninsula would be many shippers' dream, and now I'm more grateful than ever that someone in Tallahassee has always managed to deny this.

Thanks for enlightening me and best of luck on recovery.

SB

[Audrey2Katrina]

Thanks for the kind words, SeaBrz, and yes you are fortunate indeed in that nobody was able to "buy off" their way into carving one of these killer monstrosities into your beautiful state.

As to the bigotted opinions... believe me, I'm quite familiar with them having seen them all over the net. People have tunnel vision, and tend to generalize to an entire population, or city, what little they see through main-stream media snippets. And that is sad. A lot of folks who stayed, did so to "protect" their property. I grant you in light of Katrina's enormous size and strength, this was not the wisest choice of actions; but don't condemn them for that. Had there been no flooding from the MRGO whatsoever, the city would have still suffered a great deal of flooding; but VAST areas of the lower ninth, and New Orleans East would have been spared, and my guess is that the death count would be at least cut in half--if not more.

A2K