Sitting on an ocean beachfront watching children building sandcastles, one lesson is clear even to a child: If you build too close to the waters edge, your work is destined for disaster.
When Jean Baptiste le Moyen de Bienville decided in 1718 to establish his settlement, now known as New Orleans, in the swamplands of the Mississippi Delta, little consideration was given to future problems. This lack of foresight resulted in placing yet another American city at risk.