… and I don’t want to swim.

CNN.com: Study finds rapid pre-Katrina sinking in New Orleans Certain parts of New Orleans subsided more rapidly than predicted, i.e. more than one inch per year, over the last four years, contributing to localized levee failure after last year’s Hurricane Katrina.

“What we found is that some of the levee failure in New Orleans were places where subsidence was highest,” University of Miami professor Tim Dixon* said in a news release from the school. “These levees were built over 40 years ago, and in some cases, the ground had subsided a minimum of 3 feet which probably put them lower than their design level.”

Scientists made the measurements by studying more than 100,000 images taken by a Canadian satellite monitoring the wetlands around New Orleans … [they] did not know about the images until after Katrina.

No one predicted levee failure of this magnitude before the storm and assumed they would hold despite increasing subsidence rates. Do these scientists now care to tell us where else levees are at risk, or should we just assume that all New Orleanian canal levees are unfit for human reliance?

… some places, including the Lakeview and Kenner areas, would continue to sink about an inch per year over the next 10 years but that the average would be a fraction of that.

“We need to think long term, think of what will happen in the city in 50 or 100 years,” [study co-author Shimon Wdowinski] said. “Some areas will continue to subside, the sea level will continue to rise. Places like the Lower Ninth Ward will be 10 feet below sea level.”

“Pervasively flawed” levees built on the accelerating subsidence of organic-rich sediment.  Crumbling wafers on melting icecream. Hark, what news through yonder window bleats? Why, flood barriers are mostly back to strength, say the Army Corps of Engineers. And what more?

“If another Katrina hit, the levees aren’t magic,” said Col. Lewis Setliff III, commander of Task Force Guardian, the corps team making the repairs. “They are built to a certain height, and if you have a storm surge that exceeds that, you would have overtopping and you would have flooding in traditional low-lying areas in New Orleans. But what we are going to do is prevent the catastrophic failure of these levees and floodwalls.”

You hear that? The levees are not held up by binding spells, but the corps will magically prevent the catastrophic failure of our levees and floodwalls. Recall these words come the end of hurricane season.

*who, incidentally, performs research close to my heart

The only person I wanted to be with when Katrina swooped down on the Gulf coast was my mother. The unwavering trust and, in the case of my mother, the knowledge that she has never ever sweetened the truth for me. If that isn’t a lifetime of consistency, I don’t know what is.

Happy mother’s day to the lady who bore me, and continues to bear with me three decades running. If it weren’t for you and your strong beliefs, ma, I’d be on the floor in a million pieces now. Keep it together – a great lesson from a woman who lost her own home of 27 years to cruel fate and kept going.

Happy mother’s day to my grandmothers. One turns 90 this weekend and thinks I still look and sound like the four-year-old version of me. From her I’ve learned to respect youth at heart. The other reads, reads, reads, educates herself, and makes artwork of beauty, right as her eyes completely fail her. It is because of this woman that I will always indulge in that most wonderful of activities – reading – even in the darkest of light and with subpar vision.

How our grandmothers did it while responsible for generations of family and a flock of children, and how my mother did it with two impossible children and the most demanding of jobs, is beyond me. I’m a remorseless ball of whine when all I have to take care of is myself.

Lastly, happy mother’s day to every single maternal figure who made it through Katrina to tell the tale. Your strength is our future.

Respect.

The use of the term “New Orleans Blogger” twice in yesterday’s post is part of the Link Think New Orleans viral campaign, a variant of The Indie Virus campaign. “Virus” is a good thing in this instance because, like your mama said about chicken pox, it’s one a kid wants to catch. Chris Pearson, the mastermind behind the campaign, explains its two-fold rationale:

“All you’ve got to do is link to lesser known blogs from within a post (or two, or eleventeen), but you have to make sure that the anchor text of your link is The Indie Virus [or in the case of New Orleans, New Orleans Blogger]

“The experiment … has two goals:

* To bring exposure to lesser known blogs (especially those outside of Technorati’s top 100)
* To explore the metrics behind a viral linking campaign launched by the “little guys” (less popular blogs)”

So, if you’re an area blogger and/or would like to bring attention to blogging about the city of New Orleans, link to two New Orleans bloggers you consider relevant, with the anchor text of the link being New Orleans Blogger. e.g. New Orleans Blogger. Important note from Chris: “make sure that you link directly to a post WITH A TRACKBACK and not to the site itself – it speaks louder!”

You may thank Alan, tireless hamster of the New Orleans Blogger group, for applying yet another online concoction to our local cause.

Onto matters of the city. For the next few days, posts will center on Orleans Parish elections, state leadership, levees and other aspects of our area’s path forward. First, who wants to be a contender or just a bum?

Fasten your seatbelts for this goat rodeo. Katrina postponed our elections for key city spots, but that did not help hasten the process. It’s politics as usual and every Tom, Dick and Kimberly has his name in the hat for the April 22nd primary. It has almost become this ridiculous:

Even this two-year-old unknown is running for mayor

Jokes aside, unlike Jim Fitzmorris, I agree with Louisiana’s primary-followed-by-runoff system in which “everyone runs in the same primary. If anyone gets fifty-one percent first time around, they win. If not, the top two vote getters, regardless of party, make the runoff.” Today’s nola.com rues that “116 candidates [have] signed up for 20 offices, leaving no sitting official without opposition [and] runoff won’t be until May 20.” This is democracy in action, in my opinion, unlike separate party primaries and the first person to the post declared the winner. But …

This process is ideal in a city or state which is not a cauldron of conflicting priorities associated with reconstruction after a major natural disaster. A tremendous opportunity to rebuild southern Lousiana right awaits us, and the buildup to this election reflects its current state: confusion. Many passionate and objective citizen stances on what a rebuild means clamor to be heard by passionate and power-hungry politicians with their own ideas and agendas. Confusion, especially that of the political variety, can be a good thing and has often generated criticial discussion and satisfactory outcomes. Somehow, the Louisianan combination of money, power, political cattiness, and now a piece of the rebuild doesn’t inspire healing at this time. All said, the rodeo … I mean … process must go on.

Here are some thinking points for the confused voter:

• Levees, levees, levees! Attracting business and tourism to this city is a forward-thinking goal, but puts the cart before the horse. This cannot be accomplished without a reliable system of levees, utilities and civic services. I’m not sure large businesses or visitors will give New Orleans a second chance if their operations are interrupted for fiscal quarters at a time once again.
• The issue of “We want everyone back.” In order for people to come back, they need the assurance of a livelihood and a place to live. Currently, the area has many jobs associated with cleaning and building. After that, what? Again, at this difficult time for New Orleans, it requires a citizen-city symbiosis, not a circle back to the ethos of “take” – the government takes, the businesses take, the citizenry takes. Who gives?
• Where will people live? One of my biggest fears is the haphazard reoccupation of badly-flooded neighborhoods. Coastal erosion is a fact; soon, we will be the buffer. Rebuilding is possible with a strong respect for where we live in the scheme of nature. Additionally, our people can use more than those dinky FEMA trailers.
• Demand a better Orleans Parish school system. Young people returning to New Orleans deserve a better education – one that attracts and keeps them in school all day. Who would want to leave schools around the nation to come back to some of the worst in America? Before the storm, the parish had 117 public schools; only 17 are open now. Also, a mere 16 of the former 74 private schools have re-opened.
• May the best candidate win. Look beyond the two-party system. Both of them failed us when the hurricane hit and at all levels of our government. This is not the time to talk about “liberal freaks” and “right-wing nutsos.” Not to mention that there is a little bit of each extreme in all of us.

The bullets above are mere suggestions and starters. As the hurricane affected everyone and every home differently, opinions will differ. However, I strongly believe that the aforementioned problems are parish-wide and need primary attention before each individual little woe. Thoughts?

nola.com New Orleans Election Guide