New Orleans repeating deadly levee mistakes (Good report. Read and weep)

Associated Press ^ | Aug 23, 2008 | CAIN BURDEAU

[decimon]

Signs are emerging that history is repeating itself in the Big Easy...< >...every house being rebuilt in New Orleans has a 26 percent chance of being flooded again over a 30-year mortgage; and every child born in New Orleans would have nearly a 60 percent chance of seeing a major flood in his or her life.

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[The_Media_never_lie]

It doesn't make sense to rebuild a conventional house in the flood prone area.

This does not make sense either:

Congressman Proposes Subsidy for Wealthy To Build Houses on Barrier Island

I am so mad at my congressman (Republican) that I will certainly vote for a Democrat is given the chance.

[The South Texan]

“Stupid is as stupid does.”

Forest Gump’s Mom

[decimon]

Amazing. And your Rep. Brown may be more brazen than most but he’s probably of average honor.

[decimon]

Just noticing Brown’s picture. He has that hair only a Southern politician can manage.

[The_Media_never_lie]

Amazing. And your Rep. Brown may be more brazen than most but he’s probably of average honor.

"Probably of average honor" for a U.S. Congressman, is way below the honor standard for an average citizen, IMHO.

[appeal2]

This is just pure governmental stupidity. If Washington hadn’t paid everyone’s damages after Katrina, they would never be rebuilding here, only to repeat the process. If you’re gonna build in a flood plane, make sure the first floor is fifteen feet off the ground, like they do in the Carolinas. Simply rebuilding is the equivalent of telling the people of NO that there really is a Santa Claus and that he resides in Washington DC and can give them whatever they want, even in July.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Well,the Good Book reminds us that the man who builds his house upon the sand is a foolish man.

Katrina II i.e. "Sufs Up!" will maybe finally convince these idiots to try higher ground.

[decimon]

Well,the Good Book reminds us that the man who builds his house upon the sand is a foolish man.

That was written when they thought a Caesar was the ultimate in government power.

[The_Media_never_lie]

My congrescritter is holding a public meeting for input on this legislation. Guess where the meeting is? In Washington, DC.

With $4/gal gasoline I cannot afford to go to express my opinion.

It seems to me a comprehensive energy bill is far more important than this subsidy for the wealthy to build their houses in the Atlantic Ocean. It is just not on the radar scope. This is ludicrous!

[The_Media_never_lie]

See post #2 for foolish Congressional legislation to do the same thing that is being done in New Orleans.

[Wonder Warthog]

"It's not exactly great protection," said John Barry, the author of "Rising Tide," a book New Orleans college students read to learn about the corps' efforts to tame the Mississippi."

Well, it has worked pretty well for eighty years. It warn't the "Mississipi" levees that failed. If the rest of the city's levee system had been up to that standard, the city would have been perfectly safe--but they weren't.

[decimon]

Are they all earthen levees? Some earthen and some...more substantial?

[Popman]

Also on the corps' drawing board are gigantic pumps capable of pushing more than 20,000 cubic feet of water per second.

Typical dem dream world.

Thinking that something that doesn't exist will save them

Like alternative fuels will save the planet.

[Jimmy Valentine]

True enough. The sentiment stands though.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Are they all earthen levees? Some earthen and some...more substantial?"

Actually, the ones in New Orleans that failed were the "non-earthen" type. Earthen levees of proper design work just fine.

I had occasion to be in Holland staying in a hotel right on the sea-coast. The levee between the "below-sea-level" dry land and the ocean was quite similar in size and construction to those along the Mississippi.

I'm from South Louisiana in that portion of land bounded on the east by the Mississippi River, on the west by the Atchafalaya River, and on the south by the Morganza Floodway, so my entire childhood was "bounded by levees".

And then I went to LSU, part of which campus is in the "flood-plain" portion east of the Mississippi. In grad school, the river levee got quite high. It was interesting to bike along the base of the levee, and look "up" at all the oceean-going cargo ships that were moored along the river banks.

[decimon]

Thanks. That last sounds fun if a bit worrying.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Thanks. That last sounds fun if a bit worrying."

Oh, it worried quite a few folks. But I wasn't one of them, having grown up when the Morganza Floodway was built. I knew just what it was for (emergency reduction of the river level by bypassing a portion of the water across to the Atchafalaya floodplain). In point of fact, the government "did" opt to open the Floodway gates that year for the first time since it was built, and the river level dropped quite nicely.

And there is a "backup" system even to THAT system. When actually allowed to do so by the politicians (they were NOT so allowed in New Orleans), the Army Corps of Engineers is VERY thorough.

A lot of the eco-nutcases were worried that the sudden influx of fresh water into the saline estuaries in the Atchafalya basin might cause an "ecological catastrophe"---instead, it caused a "boom" in biological productivity later in the year.