My roomie was stationed in the Netherlands in the 80's; said their land taken from the sea was pretty extensive. A catastrophe would be just unthinkable.

Yes, VERY heavy storms; what few trees there are in the north of Denmark all have a pretty good lean to them.

I live above sea level.

There was a THIRTY FOOT storm surge in Waveland MS. 28 foot in Biloxi.

So anything >28 feet elevation was destroyed from the LA state line to Biloxi MS.

I was born there. I grew up there. It is what I know and love. It is my home. Katrina has completely changed my life. It has changed the lives of 90% of everyone I know. South LA is a special place to me and most of the people that live there. I do plan on going back.

Half of the pics above are places above sea level. Especially the bridge.

Should everyone move out of coastal FL, TX, LA, MS, AL, SC, NC, GA etc? Maybe everyone should just pull out of FL, it is a bad spot. Dont they know a hurricane could hit them.
Why do all of those people live in CA where earthquakes could happen? Why do all those people live in tornado alley? Why does anyone live near a coast anywhere? Why do you drive a car, dont you know you can get in a wreck and die? Why do you cook in your house, you could cause a fire. And on and on and on...........

Ruben asked how the area is doing 5 years later. Some places are doing great. Some places the people just dont care. There are still neighborhoods where most of the houses have just been left untouched. A lot of neighborhoods look like nothing even happened. According to one of the Katrina shows this week, NOLA is back to 90% population pre-Katrina. St. Bernard Parish where I lived at the time is less but is growing. Everything is not back to normal. Everything is establishing a new normal.

Sparky, I love you like one of my own, and I love the Big Easy and all of lower LA, and I guess I like every Cajun I ever met, and every bite of Cajun cooking I ever ate, and every hurricane I ever drank, and every beignet I ever scarfed down and dusted myself with powdered sugar with. My favorite cousin runs a large shrimp processing plant in Delcambre, and that town is full of as fine a bunch of folks as you will ever meet.

That said, why should the rest of us pay to build the levees and other flood control structures it takes to keep the water out of much of Nawlins? And the dam that keeps the Mississippi River from moving over to the Atchafalaya River channel and leaving New Orleans in a backwater oxbow?

The Kingfish turned New Orleans over to the Mob in the 30's, and then crack coke scorched the projects into human ashes, and the Dems in power never gave a damn, and just kept stealing the Federal money (our taxes) that was sent there to fix the levees.

I'm glad to see her recovering, and I'm glad you want to go home and help build her back, because you are the kind of folks she needs. Just don't build back below sea level, hear me. Nothing good can come of it. Katrina MISSED New Orleans. What happens when one that strong actually hits her?

I've got an uncle who has rebuilt twice from hurricanes in Gulf Shores, AL, down on the rednek riviera, the last time he only had about 6ft of water in his first floor level (Frederick in 79 flattened him) and he's a mile off the beach. You couldn't find the roads on the main barrier island after Freddie. And I'd buy a place there in a heartbeat if I had the jack. So I understand you going back. Love is not always smart...

I plan on going back to Louisiana but not back to the exact same place. I would like to live in a place we call the north shore, north of Lake Pontchartrain. Up there where Chelsea is originally from.

Katrina passed over Buras/Port Sulphur LA. Then across St. Bernard Parish. Very very close to NOLA. It was basically a worst case how the water was pushed up. There are places that they will not allow people to build back.

Amazing to think that many of those places you showed me a year after Katrina are still in the same condition. The level and scope of destruction is/was mind-boggling. We need to get together before you move...

David, most of the places are not like you saw them. There is the odd neighborhood where it was just abandoned. Most neighborhoods probably bulldozed now. Some places have not came back but were cleaned up. There are places where no businesses have come back and there are just empty buildings. Around the city you can still see waterlines on buildings and things. A lot of places are back up and running great. Some places look like nothing happened. Next time I am down there I want to take some pics to do a then and and thread.

The worst place, the Lower 9th, next to the levee has been all cleaned up. All of the houses cleared out and they are now building some cool weird looking hurricane resistant houses. They are building them out of concrete and making them very strong. The living space is upstairs. Some houses 3 stories high. If they flood they just need to pressure wash everything down and let dry and move back in. Hopefully the water wont get into the living space.

Thanks, Sparky. Good to know. I would like to see updated pics of the areas.

We all need to get together again sometime soon. Sparky's off Saturdays. I'm off every other Saturday. Maybe when it cools off some more...