Mom pointed me to a blog, which pointed to another blog (in a magazine format), which pointed to an article from the New Orleans Times-Picayune: Home Is Where The Flood Is.

In two words: “virtually prescient.” But I’ll get to that article in a moment.

Read the entry from the first blog, first. Read the comments too, or at least skim them. There are some good points to be made on both sides of this particular argument. One thing that is clear, however, is that a barrier system designed to protect New Orleans was proposed over thirty years ago. It would have afforded protection to the area from not only the glancing blow of a category 4 hurricane, but in fact a head-on strike by a category 5 storm. Unfortunately, environmental activists successfully torpedoed the project in 1977.

I believe in being a good steward of the environment. My heart resonates with the intentions of those who are fighting to preserve an environment that can sustain human life. Where we diverge, I suppose, is that I recognize that it’s too late to change the fact that there are a lot of people – and particularly a lot of disadvantaged people – who live in New Orleans.

Things brings me to the article from the Times-Picayune, dated November 22, 2003:

Preliminary results of a five-year study of New Orleans’ hurricane risk show that about a third of local residents would not evacuate, and those who do try to leave to the west will be tied up in traffic jams despite plans to use both sides of the highway.

While the number of residents who didn’t evacuate was perhaps somewhat less, an alarming number of people remained. News reports as well as friend-of-a-friend reports of people who stayed in the city were common in the days following the storm. I was even told of folks visiting their usual taverns in the city’s French Quarter. Some people won’t leave voluntarily no matter how bad things get.

It seems like, in the face of such facts, there is really only one choice: do whatever it takes to protect New Orleans and the surrounding area from future devastation. Do it in a way that protects the environment as much as possible… but not at the expense of what now appears to be thousands of lives.

It’s time to stop asking who’s responsible for what happened. It happened – past tense – and no amount of laying blame is going to fix that. It’s time to be responsible for preventing this from happening again.