concurrent英语高级视听说 听力原文 Unit 3 New orleans is sinking

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Unit 3

New orleans is sinking

For

300

years,

the

sea

has

been

closing

in

on

New

Orleans.

As

the

coastal

erosion

continues,

it

is

estimated

the

city

will

be

off

shore

in

90

years.

Even

in

good

weather, New Orleans is sinking. As the city begins what is likely to be the

biggest demolition project in . history, the question is, can we or should we

put New Orleans back together again

Life

has

been

returning

to

high

and

dry

land

on

Bourbon

Street,

but

to

find

the

monumental challenge facing the city you have to visit neighborhoods you have

never heard of. On Lizardi Street,

60 Minutes

took a walk with the men in

charge of finishing what Katrina started.

Correspondent Scott Pelley

reports.

Before

Katrina,

would

be

noise

and

activity

and

families

and

people,

and

children, and, you know, I haven't seen a child in a month here,

Meffert, a city official who, with his colleague Mike Centineo, is trying to

figure out how much of the city will have to be demolished.

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Meffert, who is in charge of city planning, says it is

50,000 houses will have to be bulldozed. Right now, most of the homes in the

city are uninhabitable.

Meffert

faces

a

difficult

task.

Every

time

he

goes

to

a

house

site

here,

he

says,

one

more

knife

in

me

that

says,

'She

did

another

one.

She

did

another

one,'

explains Meffert,

When

you

walk

through

these

neighborhoods

and

you

see

the

houses,

you

get

a

sense

of the pain of the individual families. But you don't get a sense of what has

happened to the city of New Orleans itself.

It is estimated that there were 200,000 homes in New Orleans, and 120,000 of

them were damaged by the flood.

The

part

of

the

city

known

as

the

lower

Ninth

Ward

received

some

of

the

heaviest

flooding. The houses are splintered block after block after block, almost as

if the city had been carpet-bombed in war.

Meffert says that before the storm, New Orleans had a population of

470,000-480,000 people. Realistically, he thinks that half of those residents

won't be coming back.

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The possessions of thousands of families, the stuff collected over lifetimes

is suddenly garbage, clawed up into mountains in city parks. With so much gone

already, should New Orleans pick up right where it was

？

rebuild people's homes, businesses and industry in places that can last more

than 80 years,

University.

Kusky talks about a withdrawal of the city and explains that coastal erosion

was thrown into fast forward by Katrina. He says by 2095, the coastline will

pass the city and New Orleans will be what he calls a

the coast of North America surrounded by a 50- to 100-foot-tall levee system

to protect the city,

He says the city will be completely surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico just 90

years from now.

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Since

this

story

aired

on

Nov.

20,

there

has

been

considerable

discussion

about

whether

New

Orleans

really

is

sinking,

including

on

CBS

News'

blog,

Public

Eye

.

because

we are

losing land on the Mississippi

Delta at

a rate of 25 to 30 square miles per year. That's two acres per hour that are

sinking below sea level,

That

process

could

only

be

slowed,

in

theory,

by

massive

restoration

of

wetlands.

In

the

meantime,

while

Kusky's

advice

is

to

head

for

the

hills,

some

New

Orleans

residents are hoping to head home.

Vera Fulton has lived most of her 81 years on Lizardi Street and returned to

her home recently for the first time since being evacuated.

do, I leave,

Vera is intent on coming back.

Three generations of Fultons, Vera's son Irvin Jr., his wife Gay and their son

Irvin, 3rd, live around Lizardi Street.

Irvin says his house is

That's the dilemma. The only thing they have left is land prone to disaster.

They want to rebuild, and the city plans to let them.

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