From the AP today:
Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen, just appointed as deputy to FEMA Director Michael Brown, said Thursday it was unsafe to be in New Orleans.
"We're starting an operation today going block by block through the city, requesting people to leave their homes," he said on CBS' "The Early Show." "We need everyone out so we can continue with the work of restoring this city."
Searchers were armed with proof of what many holdouts had long feared: The floodwaters are thick with sewage-related bacteria that are at least 10 times higher than acceptable safety limits. The muck contains E. coli, certain viruses and a type of cholera-like bacteria.
"If you haven't left the city yet, you must do so," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She urged anyone coming into contact with the water to scrub with soap and water.
The danger of infection wasn't limited to the New Orleans area. The bacteria is feared to have migrated to crowded shelters outside the state, where many evacuees are staying.
If we look at New Orleans as a Superfund-type site, our experience with such sites is that it can take years, if not decades, to achieve response-action closure. This was true of Love Canal, the contaminated site in New York that was the chief inspiration for passage of CERCLA in the first place. And Love Canal was only a speck of contamination compared to New Orleans.
The environmental issues, when added to the multi-billion dollar budget that would be needed to construct the levee system to withstand a Category 4 or 5 future hurricane (the system was built only to withstand a Category 3), make one reasonably wonder whether New Orleans will ever be reconstructed in anything like its current configuration.
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