If they can't be fixed, it is time to leave New Orleans. Subsidence, cyclical storm intensity, rising sea levels, global warming incubating fiercer storms and wetlands destruction all suggest it may be over. Pre-K it was going to cost $14 billion to fix the problem. Now it may be too expensive or just too late. Given the investment in the area and the plan to invest a hundred billion more, it's about high time that we get an answer we can trust.

Architectural planning, charettes, high finance, tradition, culture, race, education, crime you name it, these are all secondary issues. Number one is whether we can physically protect the area from flooding. Think big. Diverting 1/3rd of the Mississippi River flow from Donaldsonville south to the Gulf will build land. Removing the river levees entirely south of Belle Chasse will rebuild land in the Breton Sound basin, at the mouth of the river and in the eastern part of the Barataria Basin. Is it enough?

Scientists say it could still work. However the problem will continue for a while. A full bore diversion of 1/3rd of the river's flow could build a maximum of 10 square miles per year. We are currently losing 25. Although it sounds like we could only postpone the inevitable, the rate of loss will slow once the most vulnerable marsh lands are flooded. After 20-25 years we could actually begin to see some net increase in marsh again.

The good news is that five feet of water on Canal Street may have been just enough in the way of an attention grabber to get our politicians focused on what needs to be done.