I contacted David Vitters office with a suggestion for the rebuilding of New Orleans.  My recommendation was to condem streets or city blocks to allow the digging of canals linked into a system to help drain the city  of heavy rain or catastrophic flooding. The dirt from the canals could augment other dirt used to raise the land between the canals.  This type of land management is used throughout coastal areas for upscale housing developments and could work for New Orleans also. President Bushs speech last night led me to believe that building codes will be enhanced in the damaged areas.  This will prevent the rebuilding of substandard dwellings and make it financially impossible for the "less fortunate" to return to the city. The new powers od eminent domain might come in handy after all, as bad as we hate it.

What ever is the end result of the rebuilding of New Orleans, it will be expensive. There is no debating that. Anybody else have ideas on how to rebuild New Orleans?

I predict at least 10 smartassed responses for every one serious suggestion.

Quoted: ... I predict at least 10 smartassed responses for every one serious suggestion.

Nah...... More like 20 for every 1 real one.  Does this reply count as the first smartassed response?  MJD

It's not a bad idea.  Depending on the depth, width and exposure of the canals, then you might have old people crashing their cars into them.

Personally, I could care less if N.O. is rebuilt.  Buidling a city below sea level (and with us coming out of an ICE age, it will only get deeper).  Realistically:  move the damn city.  It's been destroyed, just leave it to the hobos and tramps.

A chicken in every pot and boat in every garage?

1. Raise the height of the levees by attaching precast concrete parapet panels to the current flood wall which is currently done under the Corps dam safety assurance program.

2. Establish new Base Flood Elevations (BFE) for all structures based on data received from the strong CAT 4 that just hit.

3. Require the living space of all structures be built at least 1 foot above the BFE.  This means building homes and businesses on timber piles or equivalent.