I think you're all missing the important fact that you can't rebuild those lives that have been lost. It's all very sad.
As for the city, are the "famous" parts, like the Latin Quarter (or whatever), Bourbon St. etc. lost too? Will these be rebuilt, no longer in the old French colonial style, or are they just water-logged and can be dried out?

>Jim;
>
>Don’t worry – New Orleans will come back – thanks to the Army Corp of Engineers. Then they will be all set for the next hurricane. You do realize that New Orleans is from five to ten feet below sea level depending upon where you are within the city?
>
>As long as there is an insurance industry there will be resolutions to disasters such as these. It just takes big bucks!
>
>All the federal government has to do is to print some more funny money and that will solve everything.
>
>Tom
>
>>Man, what's happening in New Orleans is unbelievable and sad in the extreme.
>>
>>Essentially a whole city is under at least 3 feet of water (and not exactly just rain water) and rising, with electricity gone but wires still live, gas gone but still spewing out in various places, huge potable water supply pipe broken, some pumping stations flooded, the sewage system basically gone, fires starting to break out randomly, and any other hell you can imagine ready to happen!
>>
>>Seems it will take a genuine miracle for New Orleans to ever get back to what it was. I wonder if it can?
>>
>>New Orleans obviously needs help way beyond anything that's ever been needed before after a hurricane in the U.S.