Tired of fear mongering (New Orleans: earthquakes, live in, fence)

[whatisthedealwith]

I am sick of hearing about Katrina and how New Orleans is poised for inevitable destruction.

I currently live in SoCal but travel to New Orleans quite a bit for work (film shoots). It is a commonly held belief by some of my cronies that the city is two hairs away from sinking into the Gulf, being destroyed by the next storm or generally imploding in some weather related way.

From what I know, the failures during Katrina were man made. But this falls on deaf ears. People keep gabbing about something they know nothing about. I feel like this kind of marketing hurts the city-- businesses are frightened to invest, people are frightened to move in, etc. I know there are risks, but hell, there are risks in Miami and even NYC and you don't hear about THOSE cities shutting down.

What do you all suggest as a come back to some of this negative, fear mongering crap?

[Mwahfromtheheart]

"Do you know how massive of a hurricane Katrina was?"

"Did you know New Orleans has a water pumping system that can equal the flow of the Ohio River?"

"The city has only flooded two or three times in the past 50 years, including Katrina. Pretty good for the most rain sodden city in the US if you ask me!"

"Oh... so you're not worried about Earthquakes?"

"Dallas is more at risk of being destroyed than New Orleans... you don't see people running from it, do you?"

"... Because people should run from New York because of Hurricane Sandy!"

"Cool.. more of their great food for me "

[BradfromNO]

Some of the fear-mongering is true. NO is sinking. NO, if everything doesn't work as advertised,
will be devastated again. But sinking is the last thing people care about where investment is concerned.
They are not a fan of being mugged, having their fence covered with graffiti, etc. They don't want to
bring their kids to a place where in order to be left alone to learn, their children will need to privately
educated. New Orleans is not going away until it washes away. Perhaps the govt will not be too keen
on re-building it over and over, but the PEOPLE there WILL. it is one of the oldest cities in the US, it is
easily the most cosmopolitan, it is so rich in history it is crumbling from the weight of it all. It is magic
made of mortar, lath and moss. Fear will never bring the city down as long as people want to BE there.
Investment, ehh, it would be nice. But until the oil runs out, it will be fine.