New Orlean's Canals -- An 'Open Wound'?

" 'Those canals are like knife cuts into a person,' Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Hurricane Center at Louisiana State University, said. 'They're just waiting to fester.'

...The Bush administration agreed last week to pay for gates to cut off the three main drainage canals from Lake Pontchartrain, the source of the storm water that pushed into the canals and then into thousands of houses.

Many here say the gates will be inadequate as long as the canals remain. Either way, it is clear that repairing the canals has become a linchpin of any plan to move the city forward."

Thanks to Ashwani Vasishth