History 201, New Orleans

THIS IS NOW:

Old Cemetary in New Orleans, {photo by Kyle(on-scene), posted to AMERICABLOG by DC Joe}... MORE AMAZING PHOTOS LIKE THIS, and some of the best real-journalism on the web [hands-down!] at the amazing AMERICAblog.blogspot.com,
one of Thee BEST!

Wow...

Looks like everybody but the current US Gov't anticipated and prepared for decades, indeed CENTURIES for, let's just say... lots of water in New Orleans, even "burying" their dead above ground! I'm sure they anticipated flooding and something like the power of Katrina, but I don't think anybody EVER could've predicted the weak, feeble response and incompetence we've seen these last few horrible weeks. Deadly, toxic, and ongoing...

For a great, quick New Orleans HISTORY OVERVIEW, go to this page at wikipedia ... (I just realized how cool wikipedia is!) cool pictures, architecture stuff, links to jazz history, bayou/creole culture, foods, etc.
Excerpt from 20th century section:

Much of the city is located below sea level between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, so the city is surrounded by levees. Until the early 20th century, construction was largely limited to the slightly higher ground along old natural river levees and bayous, since much of the rest of the land was swampy and subject to frequent flooding. This gave the 19th century city the shape of a crescent along a bend of the Mississippi, the origin of the nickname The Crescent City. In the 1910s engineer and inventor A. Baldwin Wood enacted his ambitious plan to drain the city, including large pumps of his own design which are still used. All rain water must be pumped up to the canals which drain into Lake Pontchartrain. Wood's pumps and drainage allowed the city to expand greatly in area. However, pumping of groundwater from underneath the city has resulted in subsidence. The subsidence greatly increased the flood risk, should the levees be breached or precipitation be in excess of pumping capacity (as was the case in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina). There were many warnings in the late 20th century that a major hurricane or a Mississippi flood could create a lake in the central city as much as 9 m (30 ft) deep, which could take months to pump dry.

Wow, Herb.