> They'll rebuild. And most people will return once it's possible to do so. After all, a similar but much more tragic fate once befell Galveston, Texas.

The one problem I see is this: Before the "big one" hit Galveston Texas, it was known as the "Jewel City" and "The Wall Street of the West". It was the only deep-water port in Texas during the turn of the century, and THE settling point for the rich and high-class. According to a CNN article I am reading, there was more money at the time in Galveston than in Newport, RI.

Once the 1900 hurricane devestated the city, it never regained its status as one of the wealthiest cities in the U.S., being overshadowed by "safer" cities such as Houston by virtue of a canal built that gave that now-prominant city access to the sea.

Galveston, while it still exists, is essentially an "also ran" of Texas cities. When one thinks of Texas cities, especially when non-native, the first ones that come to mind are, Houston, Dallas, Ft. Worth, San Antonio, and even if you have smaller cities on the brain, I'll bet you think of someplace like Corpus Christi before Galveston.

Unfortunately, Galveston's biggest claim to fame these days is that it got wiped off the map by a Category IV behemoth because it was grossly unprepared.

Sound familiar? I hope that New Orleans doesn't get to share in that fate.

The_Scots"Those who pay no attention to history are doomed to repeat it"man