Some called them environmental extremists, scaremongers and kooks. But for 30 years they warned that the New Orleans area and the entire Gulf Coast were ripe for disaster.
They were the people who said that thoughtless oceanfront development and the concomitant destruction of wetlands and barrier dunes had left that coast terribly vulnerable to a big hurricane. When they demanded better environmental enforcement and regulations and remediation of the damage, they were derided as tree-hugging nuts.
It took only one day to prove they were right.
Now it's up to outdoors people to join the rest of the nation's environmentalists and demand that plans to rebuild the shattered Gulf Coast will include regulations to stop developers from building on vulnerable coastal plains.
http://www.freep.com/sports/outdoors/outcol6e_20050906.htm
Posted by Dave at September 6, 2005 11:34 AM