The prospect of what can happen to that city is pretty horrifying. And it will (hopefully) bring an old debate into the headlines for a little while: why build in such percarious places? I am in an area that has marginal flooding, and have to pay flood insurance for just-in-case, but since they rebuilt the bridge that was causing the problem, there hasn't been any more flooding here. I worked for a geology professor in college and remember the regular rants against the system that lets people build in 100-year flood plains.

The difference in New Orleans is the scale on which it can all happen. Vast holdings will be flooded, hundreds of thousands impacted to some degree. This has been a ticking bomb, and the fuse is now lit.

SRS