I don't really feel sorry for people who live in the New Orleans metro area at all, do you? Afterall, this?

Nope. I don't feel for them one bit. I'm glad this new hurricane will go in to finish things up. Maybe now a new city above sea level can be built. A better, safer city without all the corruption that went on there before and after Katrina.

saying that New Orleans is the only city that is stupid for being close to the gulf is ridiculous...HALF of Florida is in the gulf....Alabama Mississippi and Texas all border it...ya new orleans is below sea level but do you really think the first people who went there and built the city knew that?? no...once a city is built people are going to live there...ya it has been destroyed...and rebuilt and who knows what could happen this time..but it is the same with any other place...if somewhere else in the world gets hit by a tornado or whatever else can go wrong with nature people rebuild because that is what they know and that is where they live..you cant ask 300 some thousand people to get up and leave because it is unsafe in new orleans...where would you like them to go...honestly...there is no way a city of this size can simply be closed down and become a ghost town...stay in Seattle....thats fine...but dont start telling poeple where they live is a waste of time and money...if something happened to where you live that you couldnt control wouldnt you want help no matter what the later problems could be??

The same could be said for anyone who lives on the coasts or Islands and get affected by hurricanes. Gustva will not only affect New Orleans but parts of Florida,Alabama,Mississippi probably even some parts of Texas and Georgia . Should these parts bee deemed unlivable to any people since many get hit by hurricanes yearly. And about 3 or 4 years ago I was listening to the radio and it said that we would be seeing some harsh hurricanes for the next 20 years.

Regardless where one lives there are natural disasters that occur. It’s just mother nature reminding man that he will never ever be more powerfully than she.

New Orleans is a city of rich history that is 290 years old. It is understandable its people would want to rebuild it, its home.

I feel the need to comment on this one and hope that the opinion I put forth is accepted and not taken as criticism. I live on the northshore of New Orleans, in St. Tammany Parish. I think that it's important to take into consideration that New Orleans is not the only area that is going to get hit. There are areas way north of New Orleans that are going to get hit as well. I don't think this is about "ridding New Orleans of it's crimes and issues". I think Mother Nature is taking it's course. Just like it does every year to Florida with hurricanes and to CA with wildfires, and to the midwest with tornadoes.

I am more than aware that New Orleans has it's issues. I've lived close to N.O. my entire life and over the last 11 years, about 30 miles from there. There are certain parts that I dare not enter after dark for obvious reasons. But you could say that about any city in the country for that matter.

Again, I hope that I've not offended anyone. That's certainly not my intention. I feel like this is a very touchy subject and am only offering my thoughts. I am evacuating early tomorrow a.m. and hope to return safely to my home town. To everyone that is in the same situation I'm in, I wish you well and God bless. To a safe return to a city that is certainly not without it's faults, but steeped in originality, culture, and home to so many!

***globular - that was so very well put. I appreciate those words as I'm sure anyone of us New Orleans residents would. Thank you.

First of all, get your facts straight. New Orleans is NOT "below sea level" - only about half of it is. The half (just under half, really) that is below sea level is well below it; it's claimed land, land recovered to meet the needs of an expanding city. This results in an average elevation of eight feet below sea level, but the majority of the city, and all of the old part of it, is actually at sea level or above. I think the highest point in town is ten feet above sea level.

All of New Orleans, however, is below the Mississippi River, because the river over the years has been artificially raised by dams and levees built upriver to protect valuable agricultural land in the Midwest. Levee building in New Orleans was a response to that - folks upriver essentially sunk New Orleans, so New Orleans had to build and then heighten levees in response. As a result, New Orleans is now wedged in between the sea on the north side of town and the river on the south side of town. It is prone to regular and potentially deadly flooding and will always be. Which is fine so long as the levees hold. Unfortunately the levees give way about once every 40 years and the city floods. We don't invest in levees the way, say, the Dutch do. (Most of the nation of Holland is below sea level, with more land being reclaimed all the time.) So we have to deal with the floods.

So why is New Orleans where it is anyway? Well, because it actually is on high ground. It's at a horseshoe bend, on the highest ground for miles, near the mouth of the trunk river of the largest river system on this continent. It's an enormous, enormous port - the largest in the world by bulk tonnage, and fourth largest in the world by annual volume handled. If you have any foreign-made products in your house, it's a good bet that about half of them entered the US through the ports of New Orleans. If you use gasoline, oil or any product made from petroleum like rubber or plastic, chances are that it came through the ports of New Orleans. In short, the reason New Orleans continues to exist is because the United States depends on it, and because, despite its crushing urban poverty, people and corporations alike make literally [i]boatloads[/i] of money there.

Why not rebuild elsewhere? Because it will cost you *more* money than keeping the ports where they are. Every single good or resource coming through New Orleans that you and everyone in America uses would have to be shipped farther up river. That would make shipping more expensive, and you and I would be charged extra for them. Now multiply that by the millions upon millons of producs or natural resources that every American uses. That amount of extra money, paid every year, would build brand new levees fifty feet high every year. By contrast the price of building and maintaining one levee system half that high, once every fifty years, is a drop in the bucket.

Now I'm not suggesting we need to build such a system with public money, or support people who live there or spend one dime of public money or lift one finger for New Orleans. I don't completely reject the viewpoint that we should leave people living in dangerous areas to fend for themselves. It's not exactly Christian but it may be economically sensible. I'm just saying that your claim that it's a "waste of money to rebuild down there" is 180 degrees wrong because in fact it's a bargain. Markets naturally respond to their own needs, and they are cruel and impersonal in doing so. New Orleans will remain where it is because the people who make money in the city make more money putting up with the deaths and the flooding and the bad press than they would by rebuilding somewhere upriver. That's just the cruel fact of life; it has been for 500 years and it probably will be for several hundred more years. That's part of the reason New Orleans is such a tough town.

As for whether to feel sorry for people who live there, well, I don't, but I have many friends and relatives there and none of them want anyone feeling sorry for them. They live in New Orleans because they love it there. It's a wonderful place to live if you're not dirt poor. After this storm, if it damages the city, they will go back and rebuild. It's the same, I expect, with people in San Francisco (earthquakes) or Florida (hurricanes) or Canada (blizzards and bitter cold). Disasters are part of life, and life must go on despite them.

It's just as you implied at the beginning: we have no right to safety. That doesn't just hold for people in flood plains, but for all misfortunes in life. You can spend your life in fear, constantly running away from the next storm, the next disease, the next war or whatever it is. Sometimes you've just got to grow a pair and deal.

very well put ShaneLvr, i used to live about 30 miles north of the lake, i now live in florida and i understand the possibilities of getting hurricanes, it is just part of life in these areas, i still have family near there and i hope them and everyone else will be safe.

You'll be the first one whining when an Earthquake or Volcano strikes.

Shut Down Seattle. It is an accident waiting to happen.

You know I wondered and wondered about your question and what it was that bothered me about it.

Never mind this ispeoples homes and lives and that was a vibrant jazzy city that hosted the Mardi Gras every year and the cajun food and music. Never mind the culture.

Lets head back up to the "I don't really feel sorry for people who live..."

That right there. Did you see it?

I don't feel sorry for people. Lets expand on this.

1. I don't feel sorry for kids who's parents were drug addicts.

2. I don't feel sorry for rich people that lost their homes in the carmel mud slides.

3. I don't feel sorry for that 17 year old that jumped two clearly marked fences to retrieve his hat when it fell off of a ride at a theme park, and paid for his life with that one mistake.

AND the latest greatest form of apathy and seriously disturbing

"I don't feel sorry" for the 12 year old girl that got jumped in the locker room by 7 YES 7 other girls all shouting "fight, fight, fight back,

while they were filming for a you tube video.

Why didn't the people feel sorry for her? Cause she didn't fight for herself. Well hmmm 7 against one and one with a phone cam to record this for you tube and she is blacked out in a shower stall,

and all people could say on you tube was "I DIDN'T FEEL SORRY FOR HER, SHE DIDNT fight back".????

I find the whole "I don't feel sorry for people THAT ONLY WANTED TO GO HOME TO A ONCE GREAT CITY"

Just as disturbing. What is this world coming to when we see great disasters and mistakes, or weakness or a longing to be home as

so less compassionate.

People make mistakes, people are drawn to home.

Isn't there SOMETHING in there you can feel compassionate about?

I know I do.

*sigh

YES I do feel sorry that their longing was for their home and they were willing to try to start all over again in a place that seems to want to... fade away.

Yes I do feel sorry for those people that feel this way about their home.

And I feel sorry for people that make an honest mistake for a worthy cause and have great heart and try and have people like you spreading this sort of holier than though attitude.

you better hope mount st.helens does not blow up again.seattle could be in danger. what about places like the bahamas,jamaica,puerto rico,the virgin islands,and cuba.they are affected by hurricanes too.what should they do just abandon their countries and go some where else. you stay where your heart is.you stay with your family and fight for all you have got.never give up.

Everyone needs to live somewhere and many folks love that area of the country and love to live there so they endure the possibilities of hurricanes coming to this part of the country