I pray I’m wrong on this, but I’m afraid that Mayor Ray Nagin’s plan to reopen the French Quarter and to allow people slowly back into New Orleans may be rushing things. We are dealing with a city that soaked in a toxic bath for weeks here. This is not a small-scale chemical spill. New Orleans sat in water polluted with gasoline, household chemicals, rotting flesh and God only knows what else.

This quote is from the AP about the condition of New Orleans.
“Electricity remained off. Raw sewage flowed in the streets and flies flew in aggressive swarms. Traffic on the relatively few passable streets was dangerous and uncontrolled, with no working stoplights. And the stench of spoiled meat and seafood was overpowering as restaurant owners opened freezers that had been closed and powerless for nearly three weeks; when they brought the stinking mess outside, there were no sanitation crews to remove the garbage.”

According to Hugh Kaufman who helped set up EPA’s hazardous waste program, and is 35 year veteran of the agency, it could take 10 years just to clean up New Orleans not rebuild it. Go to Jan Frel’s Alternet blog for more information just follow this link.
Jan Frel's blog

This doesn’t even take into account the floodwaters being pumped out of New Orleans back into Lake Pontchartrain are going to end up in the Gulf of Mexico and the environmental impact of that could be catastrophic.

Again I hope I’m wrong. I know the citizens of New Orleans are a hearty lot that dance at funerals. But we must not rush in. Lives are at stake again and the government already dropped the ball and I do not want to see them drop it again.