by Timothy Aines

Created on: January 07, 2009   Last Updated: January 08, 2009

In thinking about what must be done, the geography of New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina clearly show it is all about the water; anticipating it, controlling it, and navigating on it.

We need only go back to World War II to think of some very interesting ideas that lend itself to the New Orleans environment. There are three ideas from this conflict that I think would be relevant, and one of them even came from Louisiana itself. When stirred to action, I believe Americans know how to accomplish any task we set our minds to. These three ideas can be done, if we only choose to do them.

Move the City Inland - At least a major portion of it, especially the part of the city built on mudflats. Let's think the unthinkable and do the right thing. I think you do not build or move into a dwelling on a floodplain in the first place. Not ever. America is such a big and wonderful place. Why would you pick a floodplain? People in poor countries seem to be intuitively smart enough to know not to build anything permanent on an oceanfront. Somehow it seems to me we lose this knowledge with wealth and status, and it is only in the more privileged countries that people go to great lengths to dense-pack themselves onto a shoreline. New Orleans remaining working areas right now are back to where the limits of the city roughly stood back in the mid-1800's, as originally dictated by nature. The city's forefathers seemed to be a bit wiser then, and knew not to build too close to the water. Water, sand and mudflats are simply never static, so why on earth would you try to rebuild in this transient environment in the first place? You would never build your home on a set of railroad tracks, because it is simply a matter of time until a train comes along to wipe you out. So why rebuild the city right back in the path of nature's railroad tracks? I think nature simply needs to scrub itself clean and renew the land once in awhile. It uses wind and water to do the job. Why park the city again right in the middle of the flush?

In World War II, the Germans, the Russians, and the Japanese moved entire cities and industrial complexes inland to put them out of the range of long-range bombing. Even a few key American factories, packed up and moved entire massive industrial complexes further inland. It can be done.

Resurrect Higgins Boats - The Higgins boat and the idea of rapid supply from the sea was Louisiana's contribution that won World War II. These ampibious shallow landing craft with bow doors

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