Bob Fry wrote:

There are valid historic reasons for building near the ocean, and I'll
bet when New Orleans was started the land was not below sea level.

In fact, I just saw an AP article that stated that the old city (like the French
quarter) is in better shape than the rest of the city.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050905/...he_quarter_hk1

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.