As many, many people have pointed out: everyone should have seen the New Orleans disaster coming. The danger was never a secret. Only blind luck has kept it from happening sooner. The May edition of Popular Science discussed ways to solve the New Orleans problem. Further back, Popular Mechanics discussed this scenario as far back in September 2001.

I think once the city is drained, a lot of hard discussions will need to take place. One thing’s for sure: the city of New Orleans as we know it is gone forever.