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I just heard on the news that the sand bag plan is not working. Apparently, they dumped lots of them there already, but the bags are just disappearing. The theory is that it isn't just the levee, but that the tremendous flow of water coming through has eroded a gigantic hole under where the levee used to be. They are not going to be able to plug it until there is someway to assess how much erosion there has been.
I think what we are looking at is a modern day "Grapes of Wrath". It will be several months - if not a year or more - until New Orleans is inhabitable again.
The plan now, as I understand it, is to build a temporary dam inside the lake that broke through the levee. This will stop the flow of water so they can pump out the flooding. Then the levee will have to be repaired. This process alone will take a couple months. After being submerged for a couple months, there will not be one structure that is salvagable. This means massive rebuilding, again taking months.
This time period means that the people that lived there will have to go somewhere else. How can you put your life on hold for a year? Kids need to go to school. Families need income. Families need shelter.
So they will migrate in all directions and settle elsewhere. I see no other alternative for those that lived in NO, and perhaps the same will apply to other communities.
Mind boggling and sobering. I watched the same news story that Wendybeth mentioned and it is amazing.
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