Rewiring (and Unwiring) New Orleans

stinkymountain writes "Is New Orleans bouncing back from Hurricane Katrina with the most advanced telecom system in the country? According to Network World, carriers have invested billions to rebuild the wired and wireless networks in the city, and businesses are taking advantage of new, advanced telecom services." This story selected and edited by LinuxWorld editor for the day Saied Pinto.

Comments

My god.

[TheOldSchooler]

Just imagine the future of New Orleans; a technological marvel, with gigabit ethernet connections to each home, instantly transmitting terrabytes worth of images showing topless coeds partying outside.

Re:My god.

[Incongruity]

Hmm -- sounds like the urban equivalent of a forest fire in some ways -- the fire comes through and clears out all the old stuff and clears the way for new growth. It'd be very very cool to see New Orleans come back as a much less corrupt and much more modern city that business flocks to, thereby improving the job situation for all residents and improving the tax base allowing for restoration of the historic parts of the city, etc... of course, that's unlikely to happen as the powers that be seem to have survived the flood.

Re:My god.

[TubeSteak]

Just imagine the future of New Orleans; a technological marvel, with gigabit ethernet connections to each home, instantly transmitting terrabytes worth of images showing topless coeds partying outside.

That'll never happen.
Too many backhoes in the New Orleans area.

I can't imagine that (with the amount of ongoing* construction)
anyone in the city will have consistent internet service or cable tv.

The Backhoe, The Internet's Natural Enemy
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/19/164 3215

*You really think NO isn't going to get smacked by another hurricane before they finish up this round of re-building?

Re:My god.

[mrxak]

Just imagine the future of New Orleans; a technological marvel, with gigabit ethernet connections to each home, instantly transmitting terrabytes worth of images showing topless coeds partying outside.

Or more likely, lots of video blogs of the next big huricane.

Re:My god.

[hador_nyc]

Hmm -- sounds like the urban equivalent of a forest fire in some ways -- the fire comes through and clears out all the old stuff and clears the way for new growth. It'd be very very cool to see New Orleans come back as a much less corrupt and much more modern city that business flocks to, thereby improving the job situation for all residents and improving the tax base allowing for restoration of the historic parts of the city, etc... of course, that's unlikely to happen as the powers that be seem to have survived the flood.

this kind of thing has happened before... London(middle ages... i forget when the big fire happened)... and the great fire that cured the plague(city was rebuilt with stone... much less hospitible to rats and their fleas) San Fran and their fire, Chicago.. and their fire.. jees I'm on a fire rant here, but what I'm saying is that I agree with you and it seems to me that there is a lot of historical evidence to support that... no doubt a lot more than i can think of when i should be working instead of typing this comment!

Quite appropriate: Nothing to see here

[guruevi]

Does that mean we have to wait for a hurricane in order to get high speed in my area?

It's nice that they are re-building and as with that they indeed have to use new technologies because implementing old would be more expensive. It's logical to me that this happens. It's like building a new house, you can't get the cotton-covered electrical wiring so you get new better wiring. How this will translate to costs of course is another issue. Re-wiring existing technology IS also expensive and the costs/benefit is not as high.

But will this also mean that the poor in New Orleans won't be able to pay the charge for fiber-to-premises? Or will they make it so cheap so that New Orleans becomes the haven for geeks and technological companies?

Re:Quite appropriate: Nothing to see here

[LordOfTheNoobs]

Try telling that to the Dutch!

Too bad rebuilding NO is a...

[Anonymous Coward]

sick, politically-correct joke. There's really no point except that people equate throwing obscene amounts of cash at the poor with having compassion on them. That is also why there will never be any meaningful welfare reform, and why folks will continue to game the welfare system.

Re:Too bad rebuilding NO is a...

[eln]

That's a nice knee-jerk reaction, but if you actually look at the parts of New Orleans that are actually being rebuilt compared to those that are basically being left to rot, it's the middle class and the wealthy that are benefitting. The poorest areas are not being rebuilt, and it seems like a lot of the aim of the rebuilding efforts so far is to attract businesses and higher-income people than the ones that used to live there. Most of the poor still don't have any homes to return to, and their entire neighborhoods remain wastelands while politicians argue if they should even bother rebuilding them.

There is a significant contingent who would like to see those areas bulldozed and turned into parks, and turn the city into a smaller, wealthier (and whiter) version of what it was.

As far as there being "no point" to rebuilding a major US port city, that's just silly. The reason that city has remained there for hundreds of years, despite its vulnerability is because it's in such a commercially advantageous spot. Maybe instead of letting it sink into the sea, we should concentrate on rebuilding the wetlands around it that served as natural barriers to hurricanes in the past.

Re:Too bad rebuilding NO is a...

[ptbarnett]

The poorest areas are not being rebuilt, and it seems like a lot of the aim of the rebuilding efforts so far is to attract businesses and higher-income people than the ones that used to live there. Most of the poor still don't have any homes to return to, and their entire neighborhoods remain wastelands while politicians argue if they should even bother rebuilding them.

They aren't rebuilding the poorest areas because it's more likely to be flooded again. That's a large part of the reason that low-income people lived there: it was cheaper. And it was cheaper because the land was known to be prone to flooding.

Re:Too bad rebuilding NO is a...

[ScentCone]

but if you actually look at the parts of New Orleans that are actually being rebuilt compared to those that are basically being left to rot, it's the middle class and the wealthy that are benefitting

It's not fairies working for the Republican Party waving magic wands at swamped houses and rebuilding them. It's typically people who have money from having the background and training to command a good income that own the houses they're rebuilding, and were paying for enough insurance to do so without it being a dead end.

They're benefitting, and they're paying, too. They're also the ones that pay all of the income taxes, remember? You know, the stuff that funds that part of what the government is doing?

There is a significant contingent who would like to see those areas bulldozed and turned into parks, and turn the city into a smaller, wealthier (and whiter) version of what it was.

Parts of town that are the most likely to flood are the places least well suited to housing. They're perfect for parks. How does the fact that water runs down hill make recognizing that a racial issue, for you?

Carriage before the horse?

[192939495969798999]

I agree that it's great people are taking advantage of the new services, hopefully some of those will provide the people of New Orleans with their still more pressing needs, like houses, regular supply of goods + services, etc. In case you missed it, a remarkable story of Katrina and its post-effects appears on this blog (no relation). Even current posts there detail how things are still far from normal -- things each of us take for granted are still considered blessings in the affected areas.

Re:Carriage before the horse?

[russ1337]

Did they get a tax break for helping rebuild ? I'm sure nation will be wondering why the people of New Orleans are still poor 5 years down track, while large corporations say "bbbut we invested billions, we cant understand why they are still poor"... etc. Is the Billions of Telco money going to create jobs and wealth, or just fleece the locals for wi-fi instead?

You lived below sea level

[Overzeetop]

Let the ocean take it and live somewhere else. Or, at the least, quit asking for my tax dollars to bail your sorry asses out and hold back the gulf.

I think it is a collosal waste of money, and investing $B in infrastructure is just going to encourage people to move to an area which is inherently unsafe and very expensive to make livable.

Oh, go ahead, hit that troll button, but there are an awful lot of us that are getting sick and tired of people spending an inordinate amount of taxpayer money on projects that keep "beautiful" places in the black. I'm okay with the occasional monument or historic home, but forking over billions of dollars to artifically change the landscape for a commercial venture is not my idea of good government. That goes for all you weenies on the east coast, too. I'm tired of paying the Army Corps of Engineers to put the beach back so your oceanfront home keeps its value. You want beach, you pay for it.

Re:You lived below sea level

[Catbeller]

The Army Corps of Engineers created the god damned mess by dredging the river and laying in a new, straight canal for oil tankers and such to get at your precious oil so you could gas your precious car that you drive on freeways made by taxpayers paying hundreds of billions of dollars so that your white bread town could exist in suburban splendor at nearly no cost to you. The storm surge went straight up the canal and swamped the stormwalls. for your oil.

And taxpayers gave lovely tax breaks for the oil companies who tore out the wetlands surrounding the city which soaked up the ocean's force for thousands of years, and which are disappearing at a rate of two football fields A DAY, leaving the city naked and armorless. For your oil, at their expense.

Adjusted for inflation, we've spent trillions of dollars since the 50's laying concrete ribbons into the cornfields so smarmy, self-satisfied EXTREMELY subsidized white a-holes could sneer at the cities which funded their existence. Now we've nothing BUT suburbs and the cities are being colonized by the white suburbanites, and we've shut down the factories in the cities which used to make things to sell to other people for trade cash to build lovely 1.5 million dollar soft lofts... and I'm sure the white a-holes who live in such will be just fine as the realization sinks in to those who don't have the money to live anywhere, city or suburb, that there is no place left to work and no money from the tax-cut jackasses who wrecked everything to rebuild the economy. Castles and serfs, baby. Their own fault for choosing where they live. After all, you did...

Re:You lived below sea level

[Black-Man]

The city is BELOW sea level. Which part of that statement DON'T you understand?

Re:You lived below sea level

[chill]

What, you have a problem with a chocolate city? I knew it was about race.

It isn't the chocolate part, it is all the nuts.

  Charles

Re:You lived below sea level

[ScentCone]

And them freakin yankees and those in the Dakotas and Montana, & Michigan, that choose, mind you, choose to live in weather that requires snowplowing every summer & huge amounts of heating oil to keep warm, well, let em freeze, I say.

Really, you think that the Michigan DOT or the South Dakota state and county governments are asking for federal aid to plow all of their roads every year? Or that the residents in those states don't buy their own heating oil?

Left alone, Detroit may go to hell in a handbasket socially, but it's very like to be under the ocean. And the snow that covers Mitchell, SD every year WILL melt. All the more so, if Al Gore's right. But Huron, SD isn't going to disappear under some layer of Canada if the Army doesn't make a career out of building a wall around it.

Re:You lived below sea level

[HolyCrapSCOsux]

I live in Vegas. We don't really get "weather" here. it rains a couple times a year, and gets a bit windy every now and then, but that's about it... 3000 feet or so above sea level. Floods when it rains, but that is largely conreolled through detention basins... No Tornados, no hurricanes, earthquackes don't generally propagate this far. Nope. I think we're pretty much natural disaster free here.

Re:You lived below sea level

[identity0]

What I don't understand is how you can be such a huge, rich country, claim to be the greatest country on Earth, and yet you can't do what the Dutch have done with a quarter of their country to one city on your coast? Heck, even the Italians managed to do it for over a millenia - Venice was founded some time between 400 and 800 AD.

Why can't America do it right in one city?

To answer your question, YES.

[SlashdotAnswerGuy]

Is New Orleans bouncing back from Hurricane Katrina with the most advanced telecom system in the country?

Yes, yes it is.

In fact, New Orleans' broadband is so good, Korean tourists are flocking there to mob-harass the local Web pariahs.

New Orleans' broadband is so good, Al Gore is working on a movie advocating we de-decentralize the Internet, putting New Orleans right in the middle.

New Orleans broadband is so good, mint juleps are already outselling Mountain Dew as the official drink of computer nerds.

New Orleans broadband is so good, girls at the last Mardi Gras were flashing their MySpace pages in exchange for beads.

Hope that answers your question!

Sincerely,
SlashdotAnswerGuy

Re:Stupidity

[eln]

If you're going to rebuild the city (and they are, except for apparently the lower 9th ward, which by the looks of it will just be allowed to remain a pile of rubble that even the cops are afraid to go into until it crumbles entirely to dust), it would be idiotic to put old technology in there. They're going to be spending billions to dig big trenches and replace poles and whatnot, do you expect them to do all of that and put in, say, cloth insulated wiring?

NO will get the most current technology because it makes sense to rebuild in such a way that you won't have to be digging up the same streets 5 years from now to upgrade wiring that was obsolete when you first installed it.

I won't sleep...

[bdonalds]

...until every one of the children in New Orleans has a $100 laptop!

Re:Stupidity

[russ1337]

They went wi-fi cos they learned that the standard internet tubes fill with water....

Let Telecom Be Just the Beginning...

[X86Daddy]

I've been musing about this since Katrina... There is a lot of emotional power behind the "rebuild New Orleans" concept, and it will most likely happen. As huge parts of it were destroyed, that rebuilding process will be from the foundations up.

During the Civil War, Sherman burned Atlanta to the ground. Now, as far as cities in the Southern US goes, it's pretty damn advanced. It most assuredly would not be what it is today had that event not occured. Savannah, Georgia was "spared" by Sherman, and the place seems allergic to progress. At least part of that comes from a valid desire to preserve the historic elements that have been there for centuries. NOLA faces some of those concerns, but only in the sections that weren't destroyed...

I very seriously hope to see, perhaps in 20 years or so, the beginnings of one of the first NEW cities in the US in quite some time. The causality may suck, but life has already delivered those lemons... I want to see a 21st century city over here, and it has a chance to happen. Failing that, I'm hoping some growth happens around one of the spaceport sites.

Re:Wired vs. Wireless

[RESPAWN]

Not that you could have gotten through the switch anyway. I lived in New Orleans when the hurricane hit. My 504 area code cell phone was virtually unusable for incoming calls for the better part of the next couple of months. Backup generator or not, the lines were simply unusable. Actually, when we were evacuating, myself and my friend in the other car, once we finally made a connection on our cell phones, just stayed on the line with each other for several hours so we could communicate driving (idling) strategies.

That said, I haven't read the friendly article yet so I don't know if they mention the exact details, but from what I learned from a friend of mine in the T-Com industry in New Orleans, most of the major carriers either didn't correctly place their generators or simply didn't have enough diesel. Suffice it to say, my primary means of communication on the road became texting from my phone since those didn't require voice services, and sending email from my Skytel pager. I had to purchase a prepaid phone once in Houston in order to receive any calls at all from family and work.

On a different note, the city wide wireless network is very cool. I took advantage of it the last time I was down there. It's certainly useful to be able fire up my laptop from anywhere in the downtown area and connect to "City of New Orleans" to check my email. If all major cities started doing this, it could open up the markets to a whole new subset of wifi enabled mobile devices, like the Skype phones and Nokia wifi web tablet, not to mention embeded devices in automobiles such as, perhaps, a Google Maps/GPS navigator. The only criticism that I had was that I, not surprisingly, had a hard time maintaining a connection from the 18th floor of my hotel. I've also heard that the coverage isn't as good outside of the CBD, but I didn't take my laptop with me to test when I ventured out to the 'burbs.

Things are improving....

[bjgeraci]

Things are getting better each day here in New Orleans.

One problem that is still present is phone service. A lot of people I know are primarily using cellular phones as their main numbers since the landlines are not reliable / available in some areas. To BellSouth's credit, they have taken this opportunity to replace the copper wires throughout the city with fiber optics, which will provide more bandwidth. But this will take some time to do (and it does not take an inordinate amount of extra time than replacing the lines with new copper wires).

A lot of people in the city are now talking about scanning their important pictures into the computer and sending them off to relatives out of town (by CD or email).

Some of the lessons learned from Katrina in New Orleans include:

• Offsite backups to other cities
• While cellular voice calls were not available, cellular text messaging was possible in the days after Katrina
• Rendundant lines / methods of communications is needed with no one point of failure. Before Katrina, this lesson was demonstrated when a large collection of fiber lines were cut accidentally, severing communications in a large region
• First responders should be able to communicate easily with each other. This was an issue after 9/11, and was still an issue for Katrina.

It is hoped that the lessons learned here help prepare other people in other places for the next emergency.

Re:Stupidity

[kfg]

. . . you should go tell those Japanese to abandon their tiny island country so that the next earthquakes won't destroy their lives. . .

Actually, they tried that a while ago and we told them to knock it off.

KFG

Re:Stupidity

[mrxak]

I think the main point is, why are they rebuilding the city where it was before? Why not move the city farther away from the coast and above sea level? It's just asking for another big disaster, possibly even this fall, and all this shiny new equipment will be wiped out. It's not the level of technology, it's the investment in a place just waiting for another wipe-out.

Re:Stupidity

[CoonAss56]

The only thing that is stupid is your anon comments. What about the businesses and residents that live here? FYI, the cost for replacing the copper is the same as fiber, so just are we to do to please your ignorant ass? Here's a heads-up, the people that live here-(ME) don't give a rat's ass about anybody's opinion about why we should do this and why we should do that. This is our HOME and we will do as we see fit.

Your Hell

[Doc Ruby]

Yeah, let's just let a major, ancient American city get destroyed by our government's incompetence and just let it rot, because we just don't care. Later, when the tornadoes/earthquakes/droughts/locusts come through your town, we'll cut our losses by writing you off.

Who the hell are these fake "Americans" who don't understand even the most basic concept of Union? They hate America, and must be kept away from any kind of power or influence. Or we'll all be left with our own post-katrina cities.

Re:Stupidity

[plague3106]

Probably because NO is very much a port city, just like Philadelphia or NYC. Moving the city further from one of their main industries will just make the port more expensive to run.

Hopefully one of the technological advances will be new levies and such...

FWIW, I don't think NO has ever been hit by a storm which 'wiped out' the city before... its unlikely to happen again in the near future, I'd think.

New Orleans Bounce

[Doc Ruby]

I lived in New Orleans for years before Katrina created Lake George, and I've returned several times since the storm and flood. I talk with people living there all the time.

New Orleans is not "bouncing back". As usual, some rich people are getting extra care and money, like the people getting the fat contracts in this article. The local poor people, though desperate for jobs and rebuilding, are cut out by imported Mexican and Central American workers, mostly illegal, all subsidized by living cheap in their own countries when they leave. Imported by fat American contractors, also mostly from out of state. Meanwhile, they still haven't hauled away the trash from the storm 355 days ago.

New Orleans isn't on TV much anymore. But it's still screwed. It's still a great place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. I hope these new infrastructures are worthwhile investments in its future, but it's certainly not "bouncing" yet. What it really needs is more of you to come visit, spend some time and money seeing it for yourself. It's cheap and easy to get to by plane, rail and road, it's cheap to eat, party and learn there. And even if it never bounces back, at least you'll have seen America's most magical city for yourself before it's finally gone after 300 years - on our watch.

Re:New Orleans Bounce

[Doc Ruby]

Louisiana is the only entitlement state? The Red States are all Welfare States. And that's just the most superficial example of White Privilege.

So I'm not going to accept your "perspective", of an insurance adjuster in a devastated, but insured city who arrived only to work in the worst disaster. I'm not surprised a guy whose job is to save insurance companies as much money as possible returns from the biggest claimant ever without sympathy. I'm surprised only that you'd admit it, and have lost touch with sympathy so much that you'd think I'd respect your opinion as "fair" when your interest conflict is so clear.

BTW, 1/3 of those police officers deserted in the hurricane - and they weren't so great in "good times", either. As for Nagin, his reelection is part of what's still wrong with New Orleans. But that doesn't make the city deserve more destruction. It deserves more help.

Re:Stupidity

[mrxak]

They've had close calls before, and a Katrina-like event was predicted years in advance. It's only a matter of time before it happens again.

Re:Stupidity

[cayenne8]

"If you're going to rebuild the city (and they are, except for apparently the lower 9th ward, which by the looks of it will just be allowed to remain a pile of rubble that even the cops are afraid to go into until it crumbles entirely to dust"

Don't kid yourself..it isn't just the 9th ward that isn't seeing any rebuilding action....ANYWHERE that was flooded, is still pretty much dead. I used to live on the very edge (poor side) of the Lakeview area. Last time I was there a month or two ago, I was amazed at how it still looked like an atom bomb had gone off there...that area is still mostly a ghost town too...hardly anyone living there, hardly any rebuilding. A lost of the debris and trash is gone, but, that's about it.

No...for the most part, any part of the city and outskirts that was flooded...is still dead, and I dunno when/if it will come back. Hell, FEMA and the other agencies can't get off their asses to tell everyone officially how much they will have to raise there houses in order to get insurance...

And that brings up insurance...hell, will you be able to get it again?

But, no..it isn't just the poor 9th ward with troubles or New Orleans east...the wealthier parts hit are in just as bad a shape...

Well, yes.

[Overzeetop]

If you live on a damned fault line, don't ask me for help when you have two houses on the same lot, separated by a brand new ditch.

North Carolina coast? Heck, the barrier islands have been moving for eons. Don't build your new castle on sand and then ask me to pay to keep the beach in place.

Florida? Please...you knew there were hurricanes when you moved there. Build solid, put aside extra money for cleanup after the storm. Don't ask me to foot the bill. Hey, here's an Idea - how about using the STATE money you DON'T spend on snow plows and heating oil to pay for the cleanup.

I'm not adverse to helping folks out. Really. Everybody needs help now and then. Don't you think for the cost of the recovery and the future levies and storm damage, we could just condemn the area and tell eveyone to get the hell out? There are more stable places to build. Those who were smart got insurance, and they'll be reimbursed for unusable property. Those who didn't, well, short of saying tough luck, how about a $5k stipend and a map of the US with places that aren't under sea level highlighted.

Bad things happen all the time, and to be honest, it's not my fault. I'm all for helping get people back moving again. If you build a 100 story building and it's so tall it falls down, you are free to build another one. But I'm not going to pay you to do it. I'm going to tell you to go build ten 10 story buildings. Just because you want to live in a place that can only have 100 story buildings is not my fault.

Re:Stupidity

[cayenne8]

"They've had close calls before, and a Katrina-like event was predicted years in advance. It's only a matter of time before it happens again."

True...but, the damage potential now is due in great part from the erosion of the coastal wetlands...lost in GREAT part, but, the slicing and dicing of it for pipelines for oil and gas to come in from the Gulf, and canals cut into it for transportation of such. You do realize that about 30% of your energy comes through this area don't you? Remember that 'little' gas crunch that happened after Katrina? Hmm? Well, a lot of the flood damage potential is due to the sacrifices and all that New Orleans and southern LA has put into giving the US this place for energy harvest, refinement and transport. We need money now, in forms of giving us a more fair share of off shore drilling lease royalties, to ensure that the coastal wetlands that are the best and a natural barrier from hurrican surges can be rebuilt and maintained...funds that are continuous and dedicated to that.

In another post you said "Move the City"...do you really think that is possible? Let's see, San Francisco is on a fault line, and they had some pretty bad damage awhile back, and are due for another catastrophe..maybe we could move SF? New Orleans is a major port city!! It is not only a source of a lot of importated goods, but, more importantly, all large percentage of exports from the central part of the US go through there...not really possible further up river.

Give a little thought to helping NOLA...it has been her longer than the US itself...nearly 300 yrs old. It has given the US cultural gifts, it is a strategic port city, and a central point for much of the energy the US needs. I don't see any other states shouting to let them build new refineries in 'their backyard', and the east coast, Florida, and the west coast all bad drilling for oil...so in trade for us letting people do that in our area...give us a fuckin' break, and instead of criticism, how about some help...perm. help.

I'm having to live outside NOLA for now...I desperately want to go back to live there, I do work there...but, I gotta see if the city and state will get their act together, and restart this city as it should be, and clean house. (Good start by taking over almost all the previously failing schools and making them charter schools), but, also, if we'll be able to get insurance on a house, and if the Corps. of Engineers, can and will build a comprehensive levee system that is built in a smart fashion, and not a half assed one like last time, that failed way before it should have and nearly killed the city.

Lastly...c'mon...we're part of the US. You can see what the Dutch did for their special town of Amsterdam. Is NOLA not that important for the US? If not for sentamental value, then for business as I've listed above. We send tons of $$ to other countries as foreign aid....why not keep a little of that to take care of our own...just give us the tools to protect ourselves, and we'll gladly keep exporting culture, fun, and energy for the US.

Because the Dutch don't have big hurricanes

[Overzeetop]

Well, that just about sums it up.

Re:is NOLA not as important to the US? No!

[Catbeller]

"It should also be noted the Dutch tax base is local to the problem. Perhaps Lousiana can come up with a way to pay for a big chunk of a proposed project."

Or perhaps we can stop pretending that we are a series of gated communities who are not a part of a federal union. Federal taxes built the highway networks and the suburbs that sprang up around them, subsidize the oil companies that fuel them, and constructed the canal that killed the ninth ward. If you can spend the federal money to build up rich gated (metaphorical or literal) communities you can spend the money to save the most beautiful American city.

Implied in your comments -- actually directly stated -- is that the 2 million in New Orleans aren't worth the money, the way those around the Zeider Zee are. Why would that be... little dark over there, ain't it.

Racism informed the coverage of Katrina, focusing on looters rather than the dying. Racism caused the panic that made the NATIONAL GUARD refuse to enter the city for a week, because gunfire (which we learned, if you get your news from anywhere but TV, actually was from suburban cops firing warning shots over the heads of New Orleanians trying to leave the city via a bridge) from negroes was rumored. I've been to New Orleans a dozen and a half times, and I know damned well what the wealthier white folks think. EVERYthing down there is about race, and that's a liberal, hated city in Louisiana. The suburbanites and country folk f-ing despise blacks, and are rejoicing in their removal.

Re:Why bother?

[mabu]

I just can't fathom why people are investing IT infrastructures in a sinking city, extremely susceptible to flooding because it's below sea level. Eletronics under several feet of water don't perfrom very well.

I can't fathom why someone would invest in any technology in Silicon Valley or San Francisco, where at any moment with no notice, a huge earthquake would destroy the place. Electronics under several tons of debris don't perform very well.

Every place on the planet has inherent risks. As an ISP in New Orleans, we were affected by the hurricane, but ONLY because the transfer switch malfunctioned. Our servers never lost power the entire time. The truth is, errors by people causesmore problems than "acts of god."

The destruction in New Orleans was caused by the Army Corps of Engineers, not Hurricane Katrina. Most ISPs and other shops were still online after the hurricane passed. It was the failure of substandard levees that was the responsibility of the Federal Government that did the city in. Improper building of any structure, in any location on the planet can cause similar results, above or below sea level.

Re:Wait and see

[mabu]

Let's hope the Telco's equipment also works underwater - or is at least water-proof.
Because one thing is sure: New Orleans is going so sink into the ocean rather sooner than later. Just the people (left) living there haven't caught up to the reality, it seems.

Why are ignorant responses like this getting modded up?

New Orleans is not "sinking" by any significant measure. The coastline and wetlands of South Louisiana are eroding, that is true, but all things considered, New Orleans being a few feet (IN SOME AREAS) below sea level is not the precarious dance-with-disaster that some idiots on Fox news may tell you.

If it weren't for the faulty levees built by the Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans would have been fine. The Corps killed the city through their incompetence, and that was before they let things get worse by not acting sooner once the damage had been done. There are levees all over the world that, if they failed, would flood many areas. Rivers swell and man beats them back with levees. Whether you're above or below sea level is moot.

What reality do people living there need to catch up to? Moving into an earthquake, tornado, tsunami, avalanche, mudslide, forest fire, or volcano zone? Boneheaded responses like yours really piss me off. There are natural dangers everywhere, and the people living in New Orleans are no less irresponsible in their choice of where and how to live than any other place in America. In fact, I'd rather have 48 hours warning of impending disaster than wake up in the middle of the night to a 9.0 earthquake!

The only color that matters is GREEN.

[HornWumpus]

As in the greenback.

BTW you can expect the white trailer park slums will also not be rebuilt quickly or directly. Rents and housing in general will be high cost in NO. Sucks to be poor. Should have paid attention in school.

Further any moderator that rated you Insightful should be metamoderated to oblivion. Race baiting is not insightfull.

2 million vs 15 million says nothing about the race of the people involved. The fact that the 15 million basically paid for their own flood protection also escaped your notice.

NO the most beautiful American city? Are you on crack? It was a tourist trap surrounded by slums. That at least has changed. Now it's just a tourist trap.