[SWTXBelle]

It's not just heritage and history, as important as those are. It's simple geography - the reason it became an important city in the first place. It is the port at the end of the Mississippi river, and vital for transportation.
New Orleans did much better before so many of the surrounding wetlands were destroyed (by man). They acted as a "buffer zone" for the city. The disaster came about because of engineering incompetence. The major flooding happened AFTER the storm had come and gone - with the breaking of the levees. And then there's the complete incompetence at the city, state and federal level - but we all know about that.
I will never understand how no one will bat an eye at spending millions upon millions for the Big Dig in Boston - but will begrudge spending the necessary money to make New Orleans safe. No one argued that if we rebuild the WTC we are just making another target for terrorists.
Were New Orleans on the east coast we would not be having a discussion at all. Not that I'm bitter.