I used to work for a relative who works in that business...

And I live along the Mississippi river and have seen dredging operations up close and personal...

The question is, do you build levees to keep the water out, or do you just raise the entire city's elevation.

I think that since the place is all but wiped out anyway, they should raise the elevation.

Using dredges, that should be quite simple.

If we assume that it costs $3.00-5.00/cubic yard to dredge, then $1.0 Billion would be enough money to raise significantly large portions of the city.

But hey...I'm one of those people who would just do it...I'm sure the Corps of Engineers is including an extra $2.5 Billion to first study the problem before they build 6" thick cement walls to "protect" the sub-sea-level city.

That of course will doom it to flood again sometime in the next 50 or so years.