« The Big One |
Main
| Some Good News »
August 31, 2005
Logistics of New Orleans' Kidney Transplant
Posted by Dana Blankenhorn
A Great City must be evacuated. Then it must be rebuilt.
After the people are gone -- all the people -- the logistics of what must happen in New Orleans next are daunting. We're talking about debriding America's gaping wound and rebuilding a kidney on a massive scale:
- Two levee breaks -- one of which is 300 feet long -- have to be repaired. You ever try to stop water from going where it wants to go?
- The water inside New Orleans has to be drained, to somewhere. It's filthy, deadly, where is it going to go? It might kill the Gulf, but were else can we put it?
- The sewer system has to be re-built, because until it is you can't get to
- Everything has to be hosed down, cleaned, and disinfected.
- Only then can you begin a true damage assessment, and chances are nearly every wooden building in the city will then have to come down. Where will all that debris go?
- Only then can we even talk about rebuilding.
It's the biggest civil engineering job ever attempted.
How long will this take? At least six months, more like a year, and that's just for the clean-up. It will take that long to repair-replace the I-10 Causeways anyway. (Pen and ink artwork by Martin C. Benoit.)
How many of New Orleans' people and businesses will take a year out of their lives, living as refugees, then go back with no assurance it won't happen again? Many are going to be permanent refugees. Not just the people, but the businesses.
The Saints have already moved to San Antonio for 2005. Will they have a place to come home to in 2006? How many people will be in the surrounding city by that time? What kind of city will it be?
All those beautiful memories we all have, of the St. Charles streetcars, the French Quarter, the food and the jazz and the history, they're as gone as pre-Earthquake San Francisco or the World Trade Center. But that's the logistics of the heart.
We have to operate through tears. Then, somehow, we have to pay the bill.
Comments (1)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Economics | Futurism | Journalism | medicine
- RELATED ENTRIES
- › The Legend of Dennis Hayes
- › Evolution Changes Its Mind (Again)
- › Welcome to 1966
- › What Must Craigslist Do?
- › No Such Thing as Free WiFi
- › The Internet As A Political Issue
- › Google Images Ruled Illegal
- › Fall of Radio Shack
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for over 25 years and has covered the online world professionally since 1985. He founded the "Interactive Age Daily" for CMP Media, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age, and dozens of other publications over the years.
1. Tom Mariner on September 9, 2005 08:42 AM writes...
The horrendous destruction spawns a unique opportunity. Rebuild -- Yes, but what a chance to create something magnitudes better! If we are going to spend all that money, let's get value for it. Unless the funds come solely from New Orleans donors, keep the present city administration in a minor advisory role.
First, obviously, take spectacular care of the ill-treated former residents that are now scattered thoughout our land.
Then preserve the crown jewel French Quarter (that belongs to all of us anyway) and do something wonderful with the stripped part of the city that is a bathtub. Take advantage of the below sea level and make it a Venice, reconstruct a convention city, an artistic or tech city, each based on the trademark New Orleans attitude and style. I'm not smart enough to decide which but am filled with the optimism that we can not only recover from this devastating natural and man-made event but make lemonade out of lemons.
Permalink to Comment