Great Times-Picayune today. First and most importantly, day one of their series “Last Chance,” on how, without massive and rapid federal action, New Orleans will be gulf-front property in an alarmingly short period of time.

In 10 years, at current land-loss rates:

— Gulf waves that once ended on barrier island beaches far from the city could be crashing on levees behind suburban lawns.

— The state will be forced to begin abandoning outlying communities such as Lafitte, Golden Meadow, Cocodrie, Montegut, Leeville, Grand Isle and Port Fourchon.

— The infrastructure serving a vital portion of the nation’s domestic energy production will be exposed to the encroaching Gulf.

— Many levees built to withstand a few hours of storm surge will be standing in water 24 hours a day — and facing the monster surges that come with tropical storms.

— Hurricanes approaching from the south will treat the city like beachfront property, crushing it with forces like those experienced by the Mississippi Gulf Coast during Katrina. […]

Despite such dire threats, the most disturbing concern may be this: Coastal restoration efforts have been under way for two decades, but not a single project capable of reversing the trend currently awaits approval. The modest restoration efforts already under way have no chance of making a serious impact, experts say.

“It’s like putting makeup on a corpse,” said Mark Schexnayder, a regional coastal adviser with LSU’s Sea Grant College Program who has spent 20 years involved in coastal restoration.

Important journalism. “We’re always fishing ‘used-to-bes,’ ” a fisherman says. “This used to be Bird Island. This used to be Manila Village.” “We can’t plant gardens anymore because when we get a south wind, the tide comes out of the bayou and covers the yards and the roads,” says a Cocodrie woman. “We used to only see that with hurricanes.”

(More on Manila Village here.)

Be sure to check out the audio slideshow by Ted Jackson and the multimedia presentation by Dan Swenson. (The maps in Part 5 of the Swenson are particularly telling.)

Second, this good piece by Steve Ritea on Edwin Edwards, now halfway through his sentence in the federal pen.

04 March 2007

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