New Orleans may be left with no defense

While early reports out of the Saint's scrimmage have the defense ahead of the offense, in the more important discussion of hurricane defense, New Orleans may be losing its most important player.

From CNN/Money:

"Since the Carter administration, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, a landmass about half the size of Rhode Island has vanished. Katrina and Rita alone transformed 225 square miles of marsh into open water, much of it in Plaquemines Parish.

The potential consequences are cataclysmic. The barrier islands and wetlands south of New Orleans provide a vital bulwark against hurricanes; without them, the city would be completely exposed to the ocean. By some calculations, Plaquemines Parish and its surroundings - even in their diminished state - may have cut Katrina's surge by as much as six feet."

Why? Levees and oil"

"Today artificial levees protect the city from floods, but they also prevent the river from depositing sediment. Funneled south by its levees, the Mississippi now dumps most of its silt over the edge of the continental shelf. Nothing builds up the land.

Exacerbating the problem is Louisiana's huge oil and gas infrastructure: Thousands of miles of pipelines and navigation channels slice through the coastal wetlands, bringing saltwater inland and killing the plants that prevent the wetlands from washing away.

Bringing back coastal Louisiana will be an ecological-restoration project of unprecedented scale, complexity, and cost - an estimated $14 billion - but it's doable. The real question is political will."