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To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (135723)	8/31/2005 12:47:04 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793926

I saw the PBS piece the interview came from, and read Barry's book. And, seriously, this thing you just said is not the case: Were it not for those levees NO would not be a 'bowl' Partly true, but for the purposes of today's flood, irrelevant. The Mississippi River levees did not make New Orleans a bowl. They form one side of the bowl, but the levees along the lakes and bayous and canals form other sides. New Orleans was a bowl to begin with, surrounded by high land caused by silt deposits left over from periodic flooding. Man has raised the height of the levees. Could the water have flowed out naturally to the Mississippi if the Mississippi levee was not as high? No, not yet. The natural levee was higher than the water has got to yet. If all the Mississippi River water went through the Atchafalaya, that would not lower Lake Pontchartrain.

To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (135723)	8/31/2005 12:53:34 PM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 793926

USGS has a very nice site on Lake Pontchartrain. pubs.usgs.gov

To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (135723)	8/31/2005 12:55:17 PM
From: carranza2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793926

What you say is absolutely true, but it doesn't tell the whole story. If the levees had not been built, the storm surge would have gotten us. This was experienced in 1965 and 1985. And is a deadlier phenomenon than a potentially controllable levee break. Because of the growth of the city, it was not a bad decision. In fact, it looked as if the thinking was justified until the breaches occurred. As Rosanna Danna Danna said, "if it's not one thing, it's another."