ABSTRACT
Residents of New Orleans have always known that they are vulnerable to natural disasters. New Orleans’s elevation is as low as eight feet below sea level, making the city extremely vulnerable to the flooding that frequently accompanies hurricanes or the northern winter thaws that raise the level of the Mississippi River. According to the Independent Levee Investigation Team (2006), New Orleans flooded 25 times before the floods resulting from Hurricane Katrina. Officials at the University of New Orleans (UNO) recognized their institution’s vulnerability and worked to address it.
