How New Orleans sank below sea level (and what they're doing about it) 

This is a rich vs poor, not black vs white issue. Pretty sure the rich black people were less effected than the poor whites. Unfortunately the poor are the only demographic that society deems appropriate to discriminate against.

There’s a gentleman in AZ who “plants” rain. He has gotten the city to work with him and he and his team build swales on the side of the streets and where the swales are they cut the curb which allows the water to fill the swales and by default the water to seep into the ground rather than running off. They plant native plants in the swales and eventually the swales start shading the streets. All small actions matter.

Half of new orleans is above sea level....,so dumb

Wow learned a whole lot here!

NO! For all the people who say let it sink! New Orleans is a city with history, with memories of great people, pizzazz, music, artists and GOOD times!! NEVER let it GO!!

This is seriously the best documentary on this subject dealing with New Orleans. Bravo. -New Orleans native

I am impressed with that 7th ward lady, this is what you do to your community and uplift the lower 7th ward, very very good. I wish you all the best. Forget race, you live in a Delta, you will flood, but you can mitigate your neighborhood so you don't have your living room flooded. With the number of vacant lots, have you considered building large pond-like ditches and pile the earth somewhere else to create higher ground?

This was good except the part where you started comparing skin colors and talking about that kind of stuff instead of being a real good person who makes videos

Interesting video. But I object to the use of “racist,” for one of the historically LEAST racist cities in the U.S. Also, people tend to buy land where they can afford it. No one forces them to buy the cheaper low-lying land and get flooded. Granted, it goes back to social economics. But that’s like saying the white Cajuns living out in the swaps who get flooded, is also “racist.” Not so.

Once they started talking about race, I'm out... never fails... poor this poor that...done with it BS

Halfway through you’ll find out it’s racism. Everything is racist.

How New Orleans sank below sea level. Emphasizing the so called “systemic racism.” Please stick to the title.

I've heard quite a few things about New Orleans, but this is new and it's probably the most interesting one. Amazing video Grist, thanks for spreading the knowledge.

I've been to New Orleans a couple of times. It's a beautiful city with a lot of history and the New Orlean's cuisine is fantastic, but too bad it's sinking. Maybe the city leaders should ask the Dutch how they hold back the North Sea. I'm sure the same engineering the Dutch use could be adapted to the New Orleans area.

The failures which culminated in the devastation of Katrina and Rita were : 1) the U. S. Army Corp of Engineers had repeatedly requested from the New Orleans Levee Board funding and approval for LOCKS to close off the three canals into Lake Pontchartrain which borders the city. These OUTFALL drains are described ---with the massive pumping stations which served to carry out the process. When the counter clockwise powers of the hurricane drove the salt waters of the Gulf of Mexico through the Rigolets into the shallow lake, it created a wave more than 20+ feet high. This flood then raced into the open mouths of the 3 canals. 2) Before Katrina actually made landfall at Burras east of the city, Amtrak had offered to send a relief train across the trestle track from the west, before rising flood waters made this impossible. Most New Orleanians do not need a car, as the streetcars and buses make the entire city accessible. Mayor Roy Nagin rejected the Amtrak offer, saying he was keeping his "chocolate city". He then flew to Dallas with his family.. 3) In the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, every state in the Union as well as countries around the world sent millions of dollars to the stricken city..These millions were directed by Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco into her New Orleans Hurricane Relief Foundation. As thousands of people made their way into the Superdome. the Governor, her husband and their lawyer (Robert Perret, a fellow SELA graduate)set this up. At the same time, the Governor refused President George Bush's offer to send the National Guard. When he did override this and sent in the National Guard 3 days later, they reported it was "worse than Beirut." He sent an aircraft carrier and authorized $91 billion in aid. By the time he was reluctantly met by the Governor, the entire city was a shambles, with looters destroying the entire CBD, and even attempting to break into Charity Hospital for the drugs 4) More than 250,000 volunteers from charitable and church groups mobilized to help the stricken city, including those from President George H. W. Bush's "40 Points of Light." The Methodist church set up kitchens, and my daughter was one of the first responders who served the millionth meal on Thanksgiving Day. 5) to the west of the city lies Acadiana, with its "Cajun" population The hero of the survival of the area's people was through General Russell Honore and his "Cajun Navy." What happened to the Levee Board members? Nothing happened to the men who were the direct cause of the deaths of more than 1,500 people and the destruction of New Orleans. Today the Southeast Flood Control Authority is in control. The members are appointed by the Governor and a council. At least one member is to be a certified civil engineer. What happened to Governor Blanco? She is no longer alive, but her New Orleans Hurricane Relief Fund, a 501c organization, is still listed in Newport Beach, California with Mr Robert Perret. .

Not a good speaker !🥴🤔👎

New Orleans is sinking bEcAuSe oF RaYsiSmS! 😂

I came here to learn why New Orleans is below sea level and the first 3-1/2 minutes were awesome then came the politics of racism. Can we just get some information without politics, just one time?

Good video until u turned a universal problem into a rAce one.

I love my city and I will never leave New Orleans behind.

New Orleans simply needs the Dutch. And they did ask the Dutch for help in 2017. We know how to deal with this problem here. I know they can help you guys there. stay strong.

It's a bit upsetting that a video of this quality doesn't get more exposure. Have you guys looked into something like Nebula? I feel like your channel would really fly there! It's steadier source of income compared to standard ads. I hope this helps!

Can't feel.

It is not sea levels rising,the wetlands are sliding into the gulf . ten years ago geologist studied the area,all the silt that comes from floods flows past the levies onto the continental self ! The shelf is bending as the silt builds up,all the topsoil is sliding in to the gulf,eventually NO will slide into the gulf !

I would take heat and even snow over flooding anytime. Nothing wrong about running away from danger.

This was great until you made it all about race Instead of class!

Thank you for such a positive message and outlook. So many videos about New Orleans' flooding are filled with lies, ignorance, and victim-blaming. You explained the facts as they are and what we can and are doing about it. Thank you.

This was interesting until you dropped the "systemic racism" line.

These are Liberal Cities. So who do you want to blame. Blame Democrats.

They spent all that money on them pumps and it still floods bad

Sank not sunk. Learn English, please.

Welp, we’ll find out after this weekend....

It's amazing what large scale engineering can accomplish. Unfortunately, politicians always severely underestimate the absolute need for continuous maintenance.

this term “black” what do you mean by that im negro american an dont like that term being used to describe my people! No part of my skin is black is what i was taught..

What an awesome and inspiring approach to the water issue here!!

"Cough" "cough" Why don't they plant banana trees or bamboo?

Building more basements to hold water only makes New Orleans more floodprone. What they need to do is elevate the ground to or above sea level, if possible. If they want to hold extra water in the newly built levels, that's up to them.

Great Video Grist!

Water always wins.

It's not sinking, the sea is rising.

New Orleans will be soon the lost city

Great video.TY.

Bad ass documentary!

New Orleans needs a bath.

Just abandoned it it's not worth it anymore

Living below sea level isn’t the smartest idea.

Hopetomakeitbetterblesslouisanahome

So it seems the levy system passed the recent test. Was watching the weather radar of that big storm. I imagine if it was the old Levy it would have been bad news??

Some.of the water drainage problems, in the past were appointing positions in the water board ,as political favors, for votes for the mayor. Good jobs given to people who were deadheads.

Has the army Corp of engineers ever not screwed something up

LA and MS are made of deltaic sediment. That sediment compresses over time. It's only natural for these sediments to lose elevation.

Thank you for acknowledging the racial disparity in the video as it seems people think racism doesn’t exist in 2023 or that they have forgotten that levees were bl*wn up in 1927 in predominantly black neighborhoods. Choosing to ignore racism doesn’t make it go away…

Some people don’t like the natural earth at all.

African Americans, not "black people". Thank you.

Louisiana must sacrifice everything below it,those parishes must be allowed to flood every year,this is the only way to save New Orleans !

Someday they will be under a DOME

😪, NO,ooooooo🌊🙄

What a revolutionary solution to the problem caused by removal of water: putting the water back. LOL!

We need to give up on new o

That was a very cute umbrella

My City we do our Diddy

Now let's talk about plate tectonics. The subduction of the North American plate to the Caribbean plate. So what? Well I looked out from Bay Cliff in Texas in the 1980s and remarked to a builder friend it was laughable to call this a cliff. 8ft above the water. He took me inside the house he was remodeling and pointed to the elevation on the original plans,1870s. It was 76ft. A resident of Clear Lake told me he giged flounder as a child with water up to his knees. It's 14ft deep now. The Mississippi River deposits kept south Louisiana above water? Where is the buildup from its outflow today?

And then along came Cantrell and destroyed it

Call Thrasher. 😋

You said yourself all the actual reasons the land is subsiding and yet threw in the color narrative anyway smh.

Didn’t know grist was racist. Thanks for letting me know your views so I never watch again

Washington DC is below the water level also!! If you build below the water level, what did they expect!! Just goes to show you you can not fix stupid!!

you can't beat mother nature, you gotta work with her

I'm from New Orleans and actually survived Hurricane Katrina. I still visit once a year to see family and to me, I still don't see the improvements. It is still the same as it was before Katrina if not worse. It is still looks depressing because it is not as lively as it used to be. The streets have seen better days. I love my city but I will not be living there again.

The water table dropped due to the building of developments outside of the developed area. I lived uptown on Barrone and the water would come up if you dug a foot in 1977. When I left in 2004 that had stopped. It was not the pumping of water the soil compacted.

A metropolis never should have been built in that location.

Plain and simple, the ones stating save New Orleans are appealing to feelings because logic shows it’s dumb to continually try to fight nature and build on sand. Because if you use logic all signs point to saving a sinking city as a waste of time and resources. Thus why appeals to feelings and history is all they have.

Move out

Why would you keep spending so much money, resources, time and effort to keep trying to stop the inevitable? This is a country with a population density of a mere 94 people per mile. There are plenty of places to live that are actually viable and tenable. To continue to live here is simply stubborn and stupid. When it gets flooded, yet again, or gets wrecked by a gigantic storm, yet again (and it will!) the residents will blame the government, racism from generations ago, the rich, and everything and everyone *but* the place the true blame will lie; with themselves. You don't get to keep making the same mistakes over and over again and continue getting sympathy as if you are some victim with no agency. This is _THEIR_ choice. They are *actively choosing* to be victimized. Yet the rest of us will foot the bill in the way of federal dollars, for their stubborn idiocy. This is supposed to be some 'inspiring' story, but it isn't. This is just the media gassing up a bunch of people who refuse to help themselves. They get what they get.

I love my City💖💓💖

I’d never live there.

Well ,the land is sinking not to mention the billion-dollar levee system so, a big rain and a small surge ... 🐬