New Orleans: "Safe from Hurricanes"

Over at Al Mohler's blog, he refers to the following quote from Tech Central Station:

[John] Law was contracted in 1716 by the French government (read: Philippe) to establish a new bank which would extend him endless credit for his company.

The charter also granted his company control of Louisiana. Law reappointed Jean Baptiste LeMoyne, Sieur de Bienville, to a second term as governor of Louisiana. Bienville had been eager to found a trading post at the foot of a Native American portage along the Mississippi which connected the river to a bayou, and hence to Lake Pontchartrain, in the north. He saw this as his chance. Law and the royal engineer both thought Bienville's choice was ridiculous -- the site was in the middle of a swamp. The small patch of dry ground lay at a curve in the river, Bienville argued, halfway between Fort Rosalie (Natchez) along the Mississippi and Fort Louis at Mobile. Also, he said, it would be safe from hurricanes. Being the highest-ranking official on-site, Bienville had his way, and Nouvelle Orleans -- named after Law's benefactor -- was born in 1718.