according to this analysis:
http://www.stratfor.com/news/archive/050903-geopolitics_katrina.php
And, if I may allow my history student-ness to get the better of me for a second, on the subject of people being ‘stupid’ for living in a city built below sea level:
A lot of people are looking at the geographical location of New Orleans through the mindset of this present time period. Sure, in this time period business and civilization is conducted mostly through air travel/motor travel of goods. A lot of people fail to realize that when NOLA was founded, in 1718 that it was in an ideal space to conduct business at that time. Now, this information is from Wikipedia so it’s not the best source but this paragraph sums it up nicely for me:
“The site was selected because it was a rare bit of natural high ground along the flood-prone banks of the lower Mississippi, and was adjacent to a Native American trading route and portage between the Mississippi and Lake Pontchartrain via Bayou St. John (known to the natives as Bayou Choupique). A community of French fur trappers and traders had existed along the bayou (in what is now the middle of New Orleans) for at least a decade before the official founding of the city.”
So while at present it seems ‘stupid’ for people to be living in the geographical location of NOLA, 300 years ago it was extremely ideal, and much of the goods brought into colonial America were brought in through the city’s ports and trade routes. So for all of those saying that you’re idiots for living where you live, they can politely fuck off and thank the city of NOLA for providing what it did to their ancestors of the past.