As helping refugees from New Orleans continues, a few people are turning attention to the long-term future of that city. Begin with this: there must be a new New Orleans.

As I write this, New Orleans is flooding again from the long distance effects of Hurricane Rita. A law of hydraulics states that great masses of water can be controlled or channeled, but they cannot be absolutely stopped or made to disappear. This law is as inexorable as gravity. 

Thomas Jefferson understood the vital importance of the Mississippi River and the Port of New Orleans to the whole nation.  Aaron Burr recognized the same when he planned a revolt against the United States by seizing an island in the river for a stranglehold on that commerce.

Add to that ancient commercial interest the contribution in oil, gas and refineries.  It’s clear the city must be reestablished.  The key questions are, how large, where, how constructed and who pays for it?  Smaller but still important questions: can its unique style, citizenry, food, music and architecture survive?

Discussing taller levees and canal walls is foolish.  Building them to withstand a Category 4, or even 5, storm only postpones the inevitable. Look at the rapid loss of the protective marshes south of the City. Eventually any barriers will fail. Then the loss of life and property really will resemble a nuclear attack.

New Orleans must be rebuilt, but not as a bowl. That seems like an oxymoron. It’s not. Hart-Miller Islands in the Chesapeake Bay provide the answer.

The Chesapeake is one of the largest estuaries in the world.  Despite excellent management of its watershed, it still washes thousands of tons of silt into the ocean annually.  That’s much less than the silt in the Mississippi, but still huge.  The Army Corps of Engineers has spent decades dredging the Bay to maintain the ship channels to the Ports of Baltimore and Philadelphia.

Decades ago, the Corps realized that dredging mud from one place in the Bay to another, even miles away, only hastened the refilling of the ship channels. So they started pumping the mud into permeable dikes around existing islands and selected shallow areas. The result? Over the course of a decade, that mud dries itself and produces new land.

Apply that thinking to New Orleans. Dike the lowest-lying areas in the city. Pump silt continuously from the bottom of the Mississippi behind those dikes. In time, the city will become an island, safely above any storm surge that may come.  It takes years for that silt to become solid ground, and the city can’t wait 15 years or so to begin rebuilding.

It doesn’t have to.

Consider the constant new construction in Washington, D.C. Every high rise begins with I-beams being driven deep into the ground so the building stands on those, not on its concrete foundation. That’s because Washington used to be a swamp. The surface cannot support a high-rise building. (Insert your own jokes about Washington “still being a swamp” here.)

Using the Washington technique to rebuild in New Orleans means reconstruction can begin now, while the current ground level is still about 15 feet below the eventual ground level.  And who would be the first with a financial incentive to rebuild?  It’s the tourist and gambling industries.

Owners seeking profits in the new New Orleans could be required to help the city in two ways. One is including housing for workers and their families in any new construction.  “Factory towns” are a centuries-old tradition in America that can and should be revived in this unique circumstance. The other assistance would be contributing to a monorail on a concrete, overhead structure, connecting the rebuilt parts of the city with the historic parts on high enough ground to remain as is. (Think Seattle, Las Vegas, Disney World.)

Properly handled, New Orleans might be commercially functional, with at least half its vibrant, attractive style and life and population which attracts travelers who support its economy, within three years.  And it will be safe for the indefinite future, regardless of the storms that might come.  However, a lot of people, including some clueless politicians, will have to work day and night to cut red tape to ensure this happens.

New Orleans is well-known for klepto-crats, prevari-crats and bureaucrats; Louisiana is not much better.  Putting $200 billion in those hands is foolish. Besides, the whole Gulf Coast is in danger, not just where Katrina hit. Therefore, why not create a Gulf Coast Authority?  GCA would be patterned on the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) and raise money from taxes on tourism, as well as spend money designated for relief. Think building codes, flood management and advance planning.

It can all be done.  Just not by the same cast of characters.

About the Author: John Armor is a First Amendment attorney and author who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.