Another result of the destruction caused by Katrina is a revisiting of plans that have been brought up in the past .
"Scientists have long said the only way to restore Louisiana’s vanishing wetlands is to undo the elaborate levee system that controls the Mississippi River, not with the small projects that have been tried here and there, but with a massive diversion that would send the muddy river flooding wholesale into the state’s sediment-starved marshes."
Vincent Laforet for The New York Times
Many scientists advocate diverting the Mississippi River below New Orleans, where towns like Pilottown, above, sit along the delta.
And most of them have long dismissed the idea as impractical, unaffordable and lethal to the region’s economy. Now, they are reconsidering. In fact, when a group of researchers convened last April to consider the fate of the Louisiana coast, their recommendation was unanimous: divert the river.
Far from rejecting the idea, state officials have embraced it, motivated not just by the lessons of Hurricane Katrina but also by growing fears that global climate change will bring rising seas, accelerating land loss and worse weather."
I think this may be just the thing for Louisiana . It COULD be a project that helps rejuvenate the state , if it can be done without pork politics getting in the way , but that might be impossible in Louisiana .
Get people working again , rebuild the landscape , and hopefully make a start toward alleviating the effect of future storms and subsidence . It will take a long time and cost a lot of money .
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