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...