The Cassandra Page: New Orleans' broken levee

In New Orleans, one of the levees that holds back Lake Pontchartrain has broken again, allowing the Lake to flood parts of the city and resume its natural shape. See Michelle Malkin for details.

Will we ever learn?

This happened despite New Orleans getting less rain than expected from Hurricane Rita.

I am glad that the levee ruptured again at this time. The city was deserted. Everything in the path of the floodwaters was already ruined. We knew that the levee would break again sooner or later. Would it have been better had the levy broken again in 10 or 20 years [after we had forgotten about Katrina]? If we repopulate and rebuild New Orleans, we are asking for another disaster. Yesterday's levee break should serve as a reminder that New Orleans is a human tragedy waiting to happen. Let's abandon this fool's errand before it is too late. How many times must we tempt fate?

The city is gone. Many of the former residents don't want to come back. Anything we rebuild would be an entirely new city. Why would we [or any sane people] build a city below sea level?

- So that we can celebrate New Orleans' jazz history? It would be much easier to buy a Louis Armstrong CD than to rebuild a city.

- So that college girls can flash their breasts in exchange for beads at Mardi Gras? It is far less risky to surf the net for porn than to endanger hundreds of thousands of lives in an underwater city.

- So that the former residents can have a place to live? They are rebuilding their lives elsewhere.

I suggest that we save our money for the next terrorist attack. We will need those billions even more desperately when Al Qaida explodes a suitcase bomb in Manhattan.

If you think you are tired of hearing about New Orleans now, wait until this time next year, when we have heard the same arguments over and over again and seen the same faces on TV fighting over the aftermath and the rebuilding money and the blame and the next levee break.

Let's recognize reality and say goodbye to this albatross.