Posted on Wed, Sep. 25, 2002 BY TIM LARGE Reuters

TOKYO - A major hurricane could swamp downtown New Orleans in catastrophic flooding, the head of a global environment watchdog said Wednesday, even as a tropical storm churned south of the city.

Rising ocean levels and sinking protective barriers make New Orleans, which sits below sea level, vulnerable to excessive flooding if hit head-on by a hurricane, Worldwatch Institute President Christopher Flavin told Reuters in Tokyo.

"That sort of marshy mud delta which has protected New Orleans is rapidly breaking up and creating an extraordinary vulnerability," he said. "If at some point you have a major hurricane -- and there's one sitting offshore as we speak -- arrive directly into New Orleans...then virtually all of central New Orleans would be underwater."

A large chunk of the city might need to be permanently abandoned in the event of such a crisis, Flavin said.

"The problem is that the dikes which are so great now at keeping the water out would also keep the water in, and you would have an environmental disaster on a scale I don't think the United States has ever seen.

"You're talking tens of billions of dollars of damage, minimum," he said.

Louisiana emergency officials ordered the evacuation on Tuesday of several communities perched on the state's coast as Tropical Storm Isidore gained strength over the Gulf of Mexico and began moving northward.

The storm, which led to three deaths and the evacuation of 70,000 people in Mexico, is expected to make landfall in Louisiana as a weak hurricane early Thursday.

A report released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in June estimated that the sea level would rise an average 19 inches during this century.

Environmental groups say that would spell disaster for U.S. coastal cities including New Orleans and New York.

-- Anonymous, September 25, 2002

Answers

The o0ther factor I forgot to mention is that Louisiana is losing coastline at a tremendous rate, allegedly due to canals made by oil and gas companies in the coastal marshes. I forget what the square mileage is but it's astonishing, I do remember that. Obviously, this means less land to soak up a storm surge or slow down a hurricane a little bit.

-- Anonymous, September 25, 2002

What a shame I haven't been to a mardi gras festival yet.

-- Anonymous, September 25, 2002

Better hurry. . .

-- Anonymous, September 26, 2002