Sunken Cities: Why New Orleans Is "Doomed" But Amsterdam Is Safe

New Orleans local here - really cannot overstate how much poor flood control infrastructure upkeep coupled to bureaucratic inefficiency and corruption contributes to our frequent floods - it's usually afternoon thunderstorms, not hurricanes, that cause flooding because our broken systems cannot handle even mild rain events.

The answer is in geology. The Netherlands sits on glacial moraine, New Orleans sits on a thousand feet of silt (basically an air mattress). The canals are interesting, but no amount of human engineering can make them equal. Best thing New Orleans can do is rebuild and protect their coastal barriers.

I read an article once about Dutch engineers who were consulted by Miami. Their report said a city like New Orleans could possibly be saved, but Miami is doomed as sea level rise will raise the everglades, and Miami will flood from underneath more than from the Atlantic itself.

There is one massive difference. The USA is reactionary in response to events. The Netherlands is proactively improving things. It's far easier to build upon success than rebuild from failures.

Not one mention of the Mississippi River changing course, which is a major reason why they are losing land because of a mistake made to connect the Red River to the Mississippi through the Atchafalaya. this redirected sediment and more of the Mississippi started flowing through the Atchafalaya. While the Atchafalaya delta is growing its not nearly as fast as what's being lost from the lost sediment of the Mississippi. This is such a foundational issue to go with the other ones, you shouldn't leave it out.

Amsterdam is also hurricane free.

One government cares the other doesn't

You should compare Venice to Amsterdam next in the same manner.

That o'l Mississippi is an unforgiving and stubborn gal.

Amsterdam has the clear advantage of not getting hit by hurricanes every few years.

I loved living in New Orleans due to its unique culture not found anywhere else in the US. I decided it was too risky to stay given the annual threat of a major hurricane hitting the area again. Insurance rates have increased to the point of being unaffordable when you can still find an insurance provider. I don't expect the infrastructure to stand up to Mother Nature and it is difficult to believe the government (local, state, and federal) will invest what is needed to protect the metro area long-term. The French Quarter and Uptown sit higher and will survive longer but the surrounding neighborhoods are endangered.

Sorry NL here, the floodings of 1995 where mostly in the province Gelderland. Not Amsterdam, open for dialog.

The Engineers in The Netherlands are some of the very best in the world.

Geoff, do you use AI to write your scripts? Reason why I ask is I'm noticing a trend where the same statement used in the preamble gets repeated several times without any relevant deconstruction. Normally it would just sound like bad proofreading but I'm seeing it in many other channels. For example, if I were to ask you now whether you were using AI to write your scripts for you because I'm noticing the same statement used in the preamble repeated several times later without any effective deconstruction. "Is New Orleans doomed? Is New Orleans Doomed? Is New Orleans doomed?" What's going on, man?

New Orleans is only doomed if we allow it to be.. Otherwise there are several geo-engineering solutions that could keep the city safe like restoring the wetlands... As for doomed? I'd say that would be Miami... Salt air + salt water + steel/concrete = Champlain Towers.. Now repeat that times like 500-600 and you can tell what kind of housing crisis the city is likely to see... Very expensive to keep building on sand bars and not expecting Mother Nature to do her thing...

My sister once told me, "Only the French would build a city in the bottom of a bowl". 😆

As a former resident of the NOLA area I was particularly interested in this week's video. Well done. As expensive as it might be to "save" the city it is too important on many levels to let it go to easily.

It's worth mentioning that New Orleans has to construct levees to prevent the Mississippi River from overflowing its banks and flooding the city which largely sits in a bowl shaped valley. However, the construction of levees to protect New Orleans prevent the formation of new swampland in the Gulf of Mexico, making New Orleans more vulnerable to damage after every consecutive storm. They're caught in a double bind.

That is not the Afsluitdijk but the Markerwaarddijk.

I see New Orleans as becoming a type of American Venice in the future... a museum city that's been artificially walled in as an island below sea level, while less important or historic areas surrounding it are let to become part of the gulf.