New Orleans abandoned again.

Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans because one million acres of coastal wetlands and barrier islands have vanished in Louisiana in the last century due to human interference. These landforms served as natural "speed bumps." They reduced the lethal surge tide of past hurricanes and made New Orleans inhabitable in the first place.

A $14 billion plan to fix this problem--widely viewed as technically sound and supported by environmentalists, oil companies and fishermen alike--has been on the table for years and was pushed forward with greater urgency after Katrina hit. But this Administration has turned its back on the plan. Instead of investing the equivalent of six weeks of spending in Iraq, the federal government is leaving Louisiana to fend for itself--again--when the next Big One comes.

In the weeks after Katrina, the American media portrayed the catastrophe as a matter of failed levees and flawed evacuation plans alone. But these were just symptoms of a much larger disease. Since World War II, an area of land the size of Rhode Island has turned to water between New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico, most of it marshland. And every 2.7 miles of marshland reduces a hurricane surge tide by a foot, dispersing the storm's power. Simply put, had Katrina struck in 1945 instead of 2005, the surge that reached New Orleans would have been as much as 10 feet less than it was.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

These marshes, as well as the barrier islands, were created by the sediment-rich flood waters of the Mississippi River deposited over thousands of years. But modern levees have stopped this natural flooding from occurring. Thus, the existing wetlands, starved for new sediments and nutrients, have eroded and "subsided" and washed away in the meantime. Every ten months, even without hurricanes, an area of Louisiana land equal to Manhattan turns to water. That's 50 acres a day. A football field every 30 minutes!

The grand plan to change all this, commonly known as the Coast 2050 plan, would use massive pipelines and pumps and surgically designed canals to guide a portion of the river's sediment-thick water back toward the coastal buffer zone without destroying existing infrastructure or communities. This would rebuild hundreds of thousands of acres of wetlands over time and reconstruct entire barrier islands in as little as 12 months.

Everyone agrees the plan will work. The National Academy of Sciences confirmed the soundness of the approach in early November and urged quick action. Yet in its second and final post-Katrina emergency spending package sent to Congress on November 8, the White House dismissed the rescue plan with a shockingly small $250 million proposed authorization out of the $14 billion requested.

Hence, no rescue plan. Which is why it's probably time to abandon New Orleans for good. Stop the repairs. Close the few businesses that have reopened. Leave the levees in their tattered state and get out. Right now. Everybody. It's just too dangerous to live there.

Anyone who doesn't like this news--farmers who export grain through the port of New Orleans, New Englanders who heat their homes with natural gas from the Gulf, culture enthusiasts who like their gumbo in the French Quarter--should direct their concerns straight to Capitol Hill and the White House.

VOTER LINKS

* www.Katrinanomore.org

* www.crcl.org

Mike Tidwell is director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network as well as the author of Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast.