New Orleans is an environmental disaster and isn’t a safe place to live now or for many years to come. It would at the very least take eight years to make it liveable again. The levees would need to be rebuilt to higher standards and it doesn't appear this will happen anytime soon. The plans now are for repairs to the existing levees. Imagine putting people back into this disaster zone and another hurricane of equal or greater force hit the city. I shudder to think that people might believe a government that tells them it’s a place safe when in fact the government allowed this disaster to kill so many people. The flooding and the deaths could have been prevented. Who would you trust, when for years the safety and well being of many in New Orleans was an issue that had been completely ignored by governments at all levels? The poor neighbourhoods were drowned even though the powers that be knew the risks were high. The Times Picayune in a November 2005 article states that there are in addition to those 1050 confirmed deaths 5000 missing residents of the city. The bodies have not yet been found. New Orleans might never be a safe (cleaned up) liveable place again. I doubt we’ll ever know the truth about the death toll or the hazards of living in a city that drowned. Rebuilding in a flood zone means “money” so likely within a few years it will be a city once again. As for the clean up with reference to safety and toxicity who knows! Maybe never.