After a $14B Upgrade, New Orleans’ Levees Are Sinking

Re:After a $14B Upgrade, New Orleans’ Levees Are Sinking by toomuchtodo on Thursday April 18, 2019 @09:31PM (#19696319)

Not if you defer additional infrastructure spending until the land has declined in value from water intrusion. To pay more today is a transfer to those whose land is expected to lose value in the future from sea levels rising.

It cost $100 million already (with an additional $400 million planned) just to keep the water out of Miami Beach (with another ~$3 billion in expected costs due to septic and well failures in Miami proper), some of the most valuable real estate in the country. NOLA is not Miami Beach/Miami (value-wise).

At some point, we have to stop throwing good money after bad.

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Re:After a $14B Upgrade, New Orleans’ Levees Are Sinking by ggm on Thursday April 18, 2019 @09:48PM (#19696416)

Not if you defer additional infrastructure spending until the land has declined in value from water intrusion.

Insurance is going to pick up some of this until the land is declared un-insured. so, some parts of the relocation cost will be socialized if you like it or not, because premiums will rise in the market to offset this cost.

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Re:After a $14B Upgrade, New Orleans’ Levees Are Sinking by toomuchtodo on Thursday April 18, 2019 @09:52PM (#19696436)

Policies will be outright cancelled before that happens, except through the national flood insurance program, which could be used to slowly migrate folks out over time. But let's not think that some sort of twisted Manifest Destiny requires we pour hundreds of millions or billions of dollars into New Orleans when there are other options available.

The only thing that is constant is change. We must be willing to adapt.

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