New Orleans is a port, meaning it is at very least at sea level. To my knowledge there is not such thing as a risk free location in which to live. At the Rising Tide conference last weekend, it was very interesting to hear John Barry, acclaimed author of Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, explain it.

New Orleans, its port so vital to the nation (perhaps especially to the heartland), has suffered from the taming of the river to benefit upstream communities with river levees for flood control and dams for hydroelectric power because each of these activities impounds the silt that is needed at the mouth of the river to maintain the protective wetlands. Add to this silt starvation the canals constructed by the US Army Corps of Engineers for the benefit, primarily, of the petroleum industry and SE LA is fortunate that the wetlands aren't completely dead. But for these man-made canals, the water would have never reached the Lower 9. Because New Orleans is a port, Tulsa & Pittsburgh (among countless other cities) can ship goods on barges anywhere in the world, and people all over the country can have heating oil with which to stay warm in the winter. I'm fond of saying that New Orleans is at risk so that the rest of America can buy and sell stuff.

We don't question the choice of home for those who live in middle America every time a tornado blows through, do we? Should we cry from the rooftops that Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle shouldn't exist? How long has Wilmington, NC been wedged between the Atlantic Ocean and the mouth of the Cape Fear River? Atlanta is running out of water. Every place has something.

New Orleans is our ancient city, some of our nation's richest history, a culinary mecca, a living museum of architecture, a cultural treasure, the cradle of jazz. It's a college town too, the home of Tulane, Loyola, Xavier, UNO, Dillard, Holy Cross, Delgado, SUNO and LSU Health Sciences, educating tens (hundreds?) of thousands of students every year.

Barry suggested that "risk communication" is a term of art, and that it's imperative that in "risk communication" you "tell the truth". New Orleanians were not told the truth prior to Katrina and had no idea that the ACoE's "flood control system" would completely collapse under a glancing blow by a Cat 3 hurricane.

It wasn't fair, and it's exponentially not fair that so many, in the immediate and extended aftermath, have thoughtlessly blamed the victims. When I hear someone say, "Why would anybody live there, in that bowl, below sea level," I count one more misguided, ignorant person.

All y'all in Gus' path, take care. Dr. Masters & those regulars here who called K's landfall Friday morning a full 24 hours before the NHC, I've owed you a thanks for three years. Because of you my college student son was out before the crowd on Saturday morning.

I'll shut up now.