ewest,
Bingo on the gas situation. It's making things triple hard to organize and rescue people. When the police can't move their cars because of high water or lack of gasoline, things are bound to be difficult. The wackos won't be satisfied until we burn cow dung for fuel and eat tree bark for food. Enough already.
Theo, I do a lot of thinking on the seat of my tractor too! New Orleans was built on a flood plain only a few feet above sea level. This flood plain rose upward from the sea bed. It is a result of millennia of sediment from the annual Mississippi river floods. The annual floods were stopped 75 years ago. Naturally, the soil compacts and subsides. I'm not certain it's possible to haul in enough soil to build up the low areas in the city. I'm not sure it's possible to build the levees solid enough to withstand a category 5 hurricane. I think N.O. will be rebuilt, but the map will be changed forever. There are many neighborhoods flooded beyond any hope of recovery. The only solution is to bull doze, and replace these neighborhoods with fields and parks.
