Well Gunthr I've been down to the grand ol gal a couple of times.
Food= out of this world, there is no comparision anywhere I've seen.
Party, man does this town party.
Never tried to do Mardi Gras (too many people) But I tied one on there one New Years Eve that I still remember.
Many of the Historic old buildings might be saved, new wireing, new drywall, floor & ceiling, a coat of paint & voila!
As to the land itself, it was us that screwed it up.
Must of Lower LA is/was delta. Delta grows because of silts washed down the river each year. When the river overflows its banks, slows down, the silt drops. Water recedes, leaves the silt behind. Newly created land like that can grow up to 3 - 5 inches per flood.
Once we built a town there, we stopped it from flooding. Time, and settling have done the rest. They've known for 30 years what would happen if they ever got hit square on by a good hurricaine. They've mostly just been really really lucky to this point.
The other thing is a lot of that land has been reclaimed from swamp/marsh. Filled just enough so that it dry's off on top, and can be built on.
My aunt's house "used" to be 2 houses from the Levi, just outside NO proper in Harahan. On the West side, towards Kenner.
They had dredging rigs constantly working the bottom, pumping up to settling ponds inside the levi. This matterial was then left to dry a bit, then hauled away to fill low spots for more developments.
It will come back, I watched Grand Forks North Dakota come through a similar flood (although not 1/50th as big).
It takes time, infrastructure, and financing. They did one thing I thought was smart up there. Right after the flood they went and pulled the power meter from any house that was wet.
You want a meter, call & get it inspected. When everything passes, you get a meter. Its the quickest way to get power back.
