Posted on 01/15/2006 7:31:50 AM PST by Libloather
Blanco: Netherlands trip could help with future flood protection
U. S. Congressman, William Jefferson, D-La., right, pauses during a press event at Kurhaus in Scheveningen, the Netherlands, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2006. At left are, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., center. (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)
BATON ROUGE, La. Governor Kathleen Blanco says a trip to the Netherlands to study the flood control systems for the below sea-level nation showed Louisiana officials engineering marvels that could be used in future flood protection for the New Orleans area.
Blanco returned a day earlier from her visit to the country with Louisiana's two U-S senators, Mary Landrieu and David Vitter, and other government and business leaders in a 50-member delegation. The delegation met with Dutch leaders about the Netherlands' unified approach to storm protection.
She said she learned Louisiana needs to work more closely with the U-S Army Corps of Engineers to shore up its hurricane protection.
Holland recently completed a 50-year program to build dams, sea walls, and surge barriers designed to protect the south of the country against almost any storm. It includes the twin rotating gates that can seal the mouth of Rotterdam's harbor against a storm surge and the set of 62 big gates that can close off the Oosterschelde estuary in Zeeland.
Blanco says the Dutch leaders she met were amazed that questions were raised in America about how much flood protection should be given to the New Orleans area.
A second group of Gulf Coast officials, largely from southwestern Louisiana and east Texas, is planning to make a similar trip to the Netherlands in March.
The U.S. delegation, led by Sen. Mary L. Landrieu (4th L) and Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander (5th L), walks past the Maeslandkeering during an excursion to study flood-control systems in Hoek van Holland, the Netherlands, January 11, 2006. Also pictured are; Senator David Vitter (2nd L), Dutch vice minister Melanie Schultz van Haegen, and Governor Kathleen Blanco (centre with black hat). REUTERS/Michael Kooren
Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, left, U.S. Sen. David Vitter, center, and U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu , right, during a visit at the Maeslant Barrier gates near Hoek van Holland, the Netherlands, Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2006. A delegation of 50 U.S. goverment officials, academics and business representives is on a three-day tour in the Netherlands to study flood prevention techniques in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The American visitors are focusing their attention on the so-called Delta Project, a 50-year project that constructed dikes, giant sea walls and flood gates that keep the low-lying country dry. The project was built after a similar flood in the Netherlands in 1953 left around 1,800 people dead. U.S. lawmakers Mary Landrieu, David Vitter and Bill Jefferson, and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco are leading officials on the visit. (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)
Media film from the MS Arca ship in front of the Maeslant Barrier gates in the Nieuwe Waterweg near Hoek van Holland, the Netherlands, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2006. (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)
From left: U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, Dutch Vice Minister for Transport, Public Works and Water Management Melanie Schultz van Haegen, and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco during a press event at Kurhaus in Scheveningen, the Netherlands, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2006. (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)
From left: U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, Dutch Vice Minister for Transport, Public Works and Water Management Melanie Schultz van Haegen, and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco during a press conference at Kurhaus in Scheveningen, the Netherlands, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2006. (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, left, and Dutch Vice Minister for Transport, Public Works and Water Management Melanie Schultz van Haegen, right, during a press event at Kurhaus in Scheveningen, the Netherlands, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2006. (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)
How much did this trip cost taxpayers?
I am sure the corps already knows what to do.
We pay for their vacation and I bet we don't even get a t-shirt.
Blanco has got to be one of the ugliest women alive. (No pics of Halfbright, please!)
We pay for their vacation and I bet we don't even get a t-shirt.
Are they afraid to look at each other (pic #3)
Are they afraid to look at each other (last pic)
What is the point of sending politicians, and women politicians at that, to "study" engineering?
Is it possible to put enough zeros to the right of the decimal place to express the vanishingly tiny probability that they understood even a scintilla of what they were being shown?
I'm sure no pocket calculator could express such a tiny number.
This is what we used to call a boondogle!
It accomplishes nothing. It's a waste of taxpayers money. And it provides press coverage/vacation trip to politicians who screwed the situation up in the first place.
Their next trip should be to prison!
...I can't determine if Blanko looks indefinitely stupid, or extremely jealous in this photo
Doogle
Both.
A 50 year project? Just think of the possibilities for cost-overruns, graft, kickbacks, etc., etc. I bet they were squirming with delight.
How many Category 4 hurricanes has the Dutch system withstood?
The Dutch were unsure as Blanco broke down blubbering if they were tears of joy, exhaustion, fear, sadness, or the effects of an Amsterdam withdrawel kicking in.
That was my first thought. The story does indicate that "academics" were present but gives no indication who they were. If Blanco & Co. were truly interested in the Dutch model for flood control then they would have sent a team of civil engineers to study the system and report back on whether it would work for NO. As it is, this is just a "Look--we're doing something...ANYTHING!" junket.
She's probably also thinking,:
"Shoot, the New Orleans cops are taking trips to Vegas, and here I am, in Europe, in the middle of January, looking at a bunch of stuff I know nothing about. "
Here's a clue, Kathleen. The Dutch actually built levees strong enough and high enough to keep the water out. Next time just shoot me an email when you've got a question.
Send engineers, not politicians.
Next stops: Pisa, to get ideas on fixing up old leaning buildings; Rome, to look at the Coliseum to get new ideas for the Superdome; Paris, to look at a unique tower design for cell phones; London, since they have water near them; Hong Kong, since they have even more water; and Hawaii, since they have even more water than anyone, and to get advice on what to do if a volcano pops up in NOLA.
Call Donald next time, Kathleen.
Blanco: Netherlands trip could help with future flood protection
----The only hope for help with future flood protection is to get rid of the ones (Blanco, Nagin, and who ever else that was involved)that mismanaged/embezzled the money that could have gone on better protection to start with.
Hey, did they forget to take Mayor Ray along with them?? He's an expert on this stuff, too. "Abandon ship!!!'
Moon's daughter is no prize either. Combine her looks with her attitude and she could make a train take a dirt road.
Before this hurricane in NO, I never thought of anything about NO problem. Why should I. Is it something that I should have on my mind living in California? But as for the Senators, Governor, Mayor, and other NO politicians, where was their head? Oh, I see, brain dead! It's about time they stopped blaming everyone but themselves for their problem. Too busy doing what RATS do.
Vitter has just doomed himself. I will never support or vote for him.
I don't think he realizes how mad we are.
Jesting aside, the Netherlands engineering solution is the only viable one for New Orleans, but the Democratic Machine in Louisianna is too corrupt, most of the funding would be embezzled and contractual standards compromised.
Put a Pubbie governor in Office in Louisianna and don't use any Dim based engineering companies, I mean even hire the Dutch to do the work, they were after all good for Manhatten!
Almost two 3rds of the Netherlands is below sea level. The Dutch really do know what they are doing! But only a Pubbie admnistration could make it work in LA. That is why Blanco is so Crestfallen in her photos, she knows that the no-nonsense Dutch approach to land reclamation from the sea would never sell to Dims! Very low cumbayah factor there!
I agree with you totally about sending these Politicians.
My first thoughts were to grab a few engineers from Holland and bring them here and I wrote the same on FR a long while back. Our Engineers have great admiration of their flood control measures which far exceed anything we have.
But our Army Corps of Engineers stink...too political.
They're always proposing temporary measures and we go through cr** over and over.
I'm a licensed land surveyor in NYS but my degree is Civil Engineering. Yes, I'm a woman...but I hardly take offense. These people are out of their league. I always laugh after dealing with these Politicians at local board meetings.
Our Army Corps of Engineers stinks and one of my greatest moments was saying to a COLONEL: "Thanks...MELVIN
...appreciate your help" and hung up the phone.
That said, the Low Countries' flood control methodology and experiences are well documented and described in numerous writings.
Several
Don't axe that. Landrieu might punch you out! (After she gets done with GW)
Spending hundreds of billions on an American Delta Project? How about just not building houses on below sea level wetlands that are eroding into the Gulf of Mexico? Let people who live there assume the risk and cost themselves, otherwise the government is encouraging people to build in dangerous areas and setting up more people to die next time.
Just typical. These people have no shame.
Anyways, which was the last Category 4+ to hit the Netherlands? And when?
I'm hoping a few congress critters from DC go to Russia to learn about their flat tax system...
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