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New Orleans Elevation Map

Looking at New Orleans from this angle is pretty scary. No wonder it flooded. (Click photo for larger.)



  1. Bill says:

    Hasn’t that already been answered

  2. JoaoPT says:

    acording to the map the city is 70 feet wide… amazing…:-)

  3. hhopper says:

    If it was drawn to scale, it wouldn’t fit on your computer.

  4. JoaoPT says:

    how do you know that for a fact… you never seen my PC…

  5. Mister Mustard says:

    >>If it was drawn to scale, it wouldn’t fit on your computer.

    If it was drawn to scale, it would just be littler, but the two dimensions would bear an accurate relationship to each other.

    By unnaturally squashing down the crosstown (lake-to-river) dimension, it distorts the “aspect ratio” of the city so that it looks like a giant pothole from the side view. And showing the lake and river water levels at their maximum possible level, it makes the whole thing look like a giant and VERY deep pothole.

  6. ZeOverMind says:

    The dumb thing is that Taxpayer money is going to “fix” the dikes so people can live there again. The money would be better spent somewhere else.

  7. Jägermeister says:

    #6 – The dumb thing is that Taxpayer money is going to “fix” the dikes so people can live there again.

    Agreed. If they want to live there… sign a form first that you’re not going to ask for money when the water comes flowing.

  8. Sibman says:

    Hey, I live near Gentilly Blvd at Allen. I guess I’m famous.

  9. Mister Mustard says:

    >>Agreed. If they want to live there… sign a form first that
    >>you’re not going to ask for money when the water
    >>comes flowing.

    Well, New Orleans isn’t the only place in the country that’s prone to flooding, earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, sinkholes, and other acts of God.

    Which portions of America do you suggest should be exempted from the gummit’s obligation to take care of its citizens? San Francisco? Florida? The eastern seaboard? Los Angeles? The midwest? Everybody knows that it rains in Indianapolis in the summertime. Should those hoosiers be denied projection against forces majeurs?

  10. Dr. Sic Snafu says:

    Recurring Slab Jacking & landfill injections I say.

  11. BobH says:

    New Orleans deserves reasonable protection if for no other reason than historic value and contribution to America. Katrina-like events are not common; in fact they are so uncommon, the Big Easy has never been this devastated before. As was pointed out earlier, most areas of this planet are unstable to some degree.

    I don’t quibble everywhere has produced something of value at one time or other… but New Orleans is the birthplace of Jazz. That single fact earns New Orleans credence. Some may say this is sacrilege, but I’d no more want to see the French Quarter underwater than Gettysburg as a parking lot.

  12. Matthew says:

    I guess no one noticed that most of the city is above the normal lake level.

  13. Ballenger says:

    The PDF linked on this page gives some better detail.

    http://www.gnocdc.org/maps/elevation.html

  14. JoaoPT says:

    #5 That’s what I was trying to say…

  15. Tippis says:

    Meh… let’s face it — those colonialists were just not good at picking locations. Just look at the number of (now-)US cities that were built on swamps… 😉

  16. Mister Mustard says:

    >>Of all those “acts of God” you’re enumerating, the
    >>only non-random waiting-to-happen again is the
    >>flooding of this sinkhole.

    You think, Einstein? You don’t think there will be hurricanes in Florida? Tornados in Indiana or Kentucky? An earthquake along the west coast?

    Maybe we should just fuck the insurance and safety nets altogether. If somebody can’t afford to rebuild their house after a disaster, they shouldn’t be owning property in the first place. Unlike the earthquakes, the tornados, and the hurricanes, nothing of this magnitude has EVER happened in New Orleans. Even Hurricane Betsy of 1965 left most of the city dry.

  17. ECA says:

    1. If man has something to fix a Natures problem, AND fixes it…
    ITS NOT an act of nature.
    Its an accident waiting to happen.
    2. 2/3’s of that area IS/WAS/WILL BE swamp land….

    LEAVE it alone…Let it go back to nature.

    Question:
    Is it an act of GOD, when you build your house on the Mississippi/Missouri Flood plain…(that aint all) and you get flooded out…Then you REBUILD in the same spot??
    I think its an Act of stupidity..

    How many homes in tornado, huricane, flood plains have been rebuilt as Modular homes, Insted of SOMETHING SOLID, Like a concrete bunker, or ON A HILL??

  18. doctorj says:

    At last count 300,000 resident have returned to the city and about 1 million are in the metro area. So some of these posters don’t like it. To them I say, get over it. This is what I have learned from this disaster. A lot of people are patriotic only as long as they are asked to sacrifice nothing. That is why George Bush’s only request after 9-11 was for us to shop more. He knows his people well. I send $40,000 a year to the federal government and my question is why? I have seen in the last 2 years many Americans don’t consider me or my family as “real” Americans. I say let us secede, keep the oil and gas revenue, make these Americans pay huge fees to ship past our port and use the revenue to build REAL flood control systems to protect our citizens.

  19. Jägermeister says:

    #17 – Maybe we should just fuck the insurance and safety nets altogether.

    How about letting the folks in these natural disaster areas insure each other?

  20. Mister Mustard says:

    >>How about letting the folks in these natural disaster areas
    >>insure each other?

    Yeah, and how about letting people with cancer provide health insurance for each other? Or letting the moribund provice life insurance for each other?

    That defeats the whole purpose of pooled risk. Most of the people who were rendered homeless by Katrina weren’t in a position to load up the truck and move to Beverly. Hills that is, Swimming pools. Movie stars. They were more like Jed Clampett without the Texas tea.

  21. hhopper says:

    Allstate Insurance just dropped 50,000 homeowners in FL. My insurance tripled this year and I don’t live near the water or in a flood zone. Insurance companies want to insure their massive profits continue regardless.

  22. ECA says:

    And Those in Louisiana, the insurrance companies are trying to NOT PAY…
    It want water damage, it was Wind damage..
    It wasnt wind damage it was Water…
    and so on…

  23. Mister Mustard says:

    Oh, and I love the Google Ad “buy a foreclosed FEMA trailer” on the left-hand side of the page. For a little as $10,000 (only $4k more than a lifelike Japanese Love Doll) you can help bail out Brownie’s “heckuva job” in disaster assistance to Americans.

    Formaldehyde vapors included at no extra charge.

  24. Mister Mustard says:

    >>My insurance tripled this year and I don’t live near the
    >>water or in a flood zone.

    Yeah, but you live near people who live near people who live near people who do. Or at least in the same state as. You’re lucky they didn’t cancel the damned policy. Anybody who runs a risk of ever having to cash in on their insurance is pretty much fucked.

    Maybe you should take Jägermeister’s advice, and start an insurance club with people on your street. You could all insure each other.

  25. Oscar says:

    This is a disastrous drawing of that area. The Netherlands is for about 30 to 40% of the country below sealevel. We’ve got dikes everywhere and spend a lot of money on water management to stay safe everywhere and gaining land to grow useful soil for farming or living (depending on the area).

    Such a simple flood solution is bound to break and should have been build much bigger to avoid the disaster that has taken place there. Google on Delta Works or Delta-werken or Afsluitdijk.


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