Word: louisiana
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...Predictably, such chatter has law enforcement officials concerned. "Not just for our safety or theirs," says New Orleans Police Department sergeant Donovan Livaccari. "But people should know where their rights begin and where they end. I think a lot of people are unaware that, in Louisiana, you can have a weapon in your car, but once you leave your car, you're subject to a whole different set of circumstances. Also, where you're allowed to use deadly force; by law, you're not allowed to use deadly force to protect property...
...that same logic, the U.S. should be trying to climateproof New Orleans. Much of the city is already below sea level, making its lessons all the more valuable for other coastal communities. Ivor van Heerden, director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, has long urged a big-picture approach to hurricane protection. Restoring coastal wetlands, he says, is as important as building sound levees. During a hurricane, wetlands act like speed bumps, absorbing the force of incoming storm surges so that they are weaker when they reach inland. Louisiana's wetlands have been disappearing at an alarming rate because...
...Army Corps of Engineers and the government of Louisiana are each preparing plans for flood defense and coastal restoration. But after the Corps's disastrous performance during Katrina, many locals distrust it. The state worries that the Corps, despite reassurances from the director of its civil-works division, will shortchange wetlands protection in favor of its traditional preference for large levees. "We're not going to let them go down that road," says Robert Twilley, chief scientific adviser to the state's planners. "If we don't restore our wetlands, the levees won't last and neither will our economy...
...Louisiana, as elsewhere, smart adaptation requires a lot more than good infrastructure and ecosystem management. Economic viability is also important, and that is not possible without insurance. In Louisiana and Florida, insurance companies responded to the burst of hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 by raising rates significantly, even canceling policies outright. How can hurricane-prone states retain coverage? "The only solution is to get the Federal Government to do what it did after September 11 and recognize that some risks are too large and costly for the private-insurance market to absorb on its own," says James Donelon, the state...
...Through the Storm: Our Future Under Global Warming, forthcoming from Houghton Mifflin Treating the First Casualty More than a century of efforts to protect New Orleans from flooding has left the city more vulnerable than ever. The coastline is shattered, and the land is sinking. Proposals for saving southern Louisiana could become a laboratory for U.S. coastal cities threatened by rising seas and stronger storms. [This article consists of a complex diagram. Please see hardcopy of magazine.] THINKING BIG Protecting New Orleans means putting more of everything between the city and the sea. Planners have three main ways...