Originally Posted by Benzadmiral

Yes, it's low. Some spots of the city are several feet below sea level.

We had a direct hit from Hurricane Betsy in 1965. I recall it well as it was the first day of school. It started raining like the hammers of hell about noon, and the school board *didn't close the schools early*. By 3:15 that afternoon, you expected to see animals going up two by two into a big ark. After it all blew away, the whole city was closed for about two weeks. (Exaggeration? Only a little.)

Oddly, the French Quarter (where I grew up -- 'struth) was pretty dry. It's close to the river, which is fairly high ground. That might not be true anymore, though.

The current plan here in what someone has called a "high-crime drainage ditch" isn't shelters. It's evacuation. Yeah, right. I saw how well that worked last year, with Ivan. Some people sat on the roads in their cars, exposed to whatever might come, for 10 and 12 hours just to get to Baton Rouge, 90 miles away. Kind of reminds you of the jammed roads full of dead victims of the superflu in Stephen King's "The Stand."

I've lived here most of my life, and I'm more than ready to go somewhere else.