Is New Orleans habitable?
As Hurricane Gustav, the latest (but not the last) “mother of all storms,” threatens to deluge New Orleans, it’s time to revisit the issue of whether The Crescent City is habitable.
Much of New Orleans, which was all but destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, sits below sea level. While it’s debatable that the city is sinking into the Gulf of Mexico, what can’t be debated is that it’s highly vulnerable to the potentially devastating effects of hurricanes.
Truth be told, so, too, is New York, which sits 33 feet above sea level, but New York hasn’t experienced a catastrophic hurricane since 1938. According to Wikipedia:
On Long Island, the storm obliterated the Dune Road area of Westhampton Beach, resulting in 29 deaths. A cinema at Westhampton was also lifted out to sea: around 20 people at a matinee, and the theater — projectionist and all — landed two miles (3 km) into the Atlantic and drowned. There were 21 other deaths through the rest of the east end of Long Island. The storm surge temporarily turned Montauk into an island as it flooded across the South Fork at Napeague and obliterated the tracks of the Long Island Rail Road.
The surge rearranged the sand at the Cedar Point Lighthouse so that the island became connected to what is now Cedar Point County Park. The surging water created the present-day Shinnecock Inlet by carving out a large section of barrier island separating Shinnecock Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. The storm toppled the landmark steeple of the tallest building in Sag Harbor (the Whalers Church). The steeple has not been rebuilt. Wading River suffered substantial damage.
In anticipation of Hurricane Gustav, the entire city of New Orleans has evacuated, save for those who either can’t or refuse to leave. I appreciate that New Orleans, with its rich culture and unique history, is the literal and figurative home of some people whose roots can be traced to the migration of 1809, but at what point does reality trump sentiment?
Should Gustav strike, we may have our answer.