09/08/2005
Hurricane Katrina Commands America's Attention
Louisiana's coastline is shrinking. Since 1930, 1,900 square miles of coastal wetlands -- roughly an area the size of Delaware -- have been lost because silt that once spread out and replenished the Mississippi’s coastal delta is now funneled into the Gulf of Mexico. (MAPS: Windell Curole and Dr. Joe Suhayda)Environmental Defense staff and members are mourning the tragedy wrought by Hurricane Katrina. Right now, the priority is to help families and communities recover. And as environmental professionals, we are already reflecting on how to best to protect coastal communities from the next storm. We know this tragedy was decades in the making, and history must not repeat itself.
http://www.environmentaldefense.org/article.cfm?contentID=4752<snip>
Healthy marshlands buffer storms While several environmental factors contribute to the vulnerability of coastal communities, the most immediate is wetlands. Healthy marshes and barrier islands act as storm buffers. For thousands of years, sediment from the Mississippi River replenished Louisiana's coastal wetlands. Since 1930, however, more than a million acres of wetlands have disappeared throughout the Mississippi River Delta, where so much of Hurricane Katrina's wrath was felt.
Wetland loss leaves coastline vulnerableGreat engineering works built for ships and flood control have diverted the river's replenishing sediment and freshwaters away from the wetlands, leaving this vital coastline less protected. About every thirty minutes an area of coastal land the size of a football field vanishes only to be replaced by open water. Restoring Louisiana's coastal wetlands must be part of a long term reconstruction plan for Louisiana and the Mississippi River delta.
http://www.environmentaldefense.org/article.cfm?contentID=4752 
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