New Orleans has lost the battle with the inevitable, and we will do the same.

New Orleans lost the battle with the inevitable, and we will suffer the same fate in some form here in California.

We are an obstinate bunch.

This is a dynamic landscape that is changing at a pace that exceeds the ability of our policy and law to adjust.

[The risk is heightened by climate changes that could bring less snow and more rain to the highest elevations of the Sierra Nevada. As a result, water surging into the Sacramento River and the delta will greatly increase the chances of winter floods.] The state's water policy and all its plans for restoration of the delta are predicated on one flawed assumption -- that the delta is a fixed landscape and will look the same for the indefinite future, ... And it won't.

If these had been in place, at least some of the energy in the storm surge would have been dissipated. This is a self-inflicted wound.