On Wed, 07 Sep 2005 11:41:49 -0400, Harry Krause wrote:


There's a lot at stake here, and I wouldn't so easily dismiss a rebuilding
of the area. It's it our national interest to keep that area alive
economically.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not dismissing rebuilding New Orleans by any
stretch. I'm just suggesting that it far from an easy project. The way I
see it, it almost has to be rebuilt. How do you abandon the lives and
homes of a million people? New Orleans is a major city, but no matter
what, it will never be anywhere close to the same as it was last month.




We've spent $300 billion so far on the rat hole of Iraq. We should be
willing to spend at least half that amount fixing up a major, important
part of the United States for us and for the people who live there.

On Wed, 07 Sep 2005 17:25:03 -0400, thunder wrote:

On Wed, 07 Sep 2005 12:20:36 -0400, PocoLoco wrote:


Call the Dutch. They know how to build dikes that work.

Not always.

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclop...-Flood-of-1953

My friends tell me they've gotten more proficient in the last 50 years! Who said
they didn't have high tidal surges?

I think the new guy in charge is named Hans Brinker, but I'm not sure.
--
John H

"All decisions are the result of binary thinking."

JohnH,

The storm surge from Hurricane Katrina is estimated at 27 ft. 3 times the
storm surge that caused the flooding in the Netherlands.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansas...n/12580121.htm



"PocoLoco" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 07 Sep 2005 17:25:03 -0400, thunder
wrote:

On Wed, 07 Sep 2005 12:20:36 -0400, PocoLoco wrote:


Call the Dutch. They know how to build dikes that work.

Not always.

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclop...-Flood-of-1953

My friends tell me they've gotten more proficient in the last 50 years!
Who said
they didn't have high tidal surges?

I think the new guy in charge is named Hans Brinker, but I'm not sure.
--
John H

"All decisions are the result of binary thinking."

The storm surge is something else. I went through Betsy in 1965 while at
Keesler AFB for training. We were about 75 miles from the eye and we had 95
gusting to 105 mph winds. At least that is what we were told. You can not
tell there is a gust of an extra 10 mph when the wind is blowing 95 for a
4-5 hour stretch. We had about a 6-9'' surge in the back bay of Biloxi.
There was a 5' wide coil of tules (cat tails) circling the bay. We were
cleaning up housing by hand, but they said stay away from the tules. Loaded
with water moccasins. Being from the San Francisco area, and used to big
waves in the Pacific, and then go to the gulf that was normally flat calm,
and see the huge breakers coming ashore as well as huge tide swing, was an
eye opener. That was a Cat 3 storm and I saw in NO iself 12" I-beam girders
from bill boards twisted like corkscrews and then bend 90 degrees. Now
change the power 10-20 times.

"Starbucks" wrote in message
...
JohnH,

The storm surge from Hurricane Katrina is estimated at 27 ft. 3 times the
storm surge that caused the flooding in the Netherlands.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansas...n/12580121.htm



"PocoLoco" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 07 Sep 2005 17:25:03 -0400, thunder
wrote:

On Wed, 07 Sep 2005 12:20:36 -0400, PocoLoco wrote:


Call the Dutch. They know how to build dikes that work.

Not always.

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclop...-Flood-of-1953

My friends tell me they've gotten more proficient in the last 50 years!
Who said
they didn't have high tidal surges?

I think the new guy in charge is named Hans Brinker, but I'm not sure.
--
John H

"All decisions are the result of binary thinking."

"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 07 Sep 2005 15:03:28 GMT, Don White
wrote:

Since I'm removed from the 'blame game', I thought I'd move on to the
next step. What to do when the water receeds. If I was an American
taxpayer, I'd be concerned about just returning things as they were.
Ideally, housing would not be re-built below sea level for obvious
reasons...but what can be done?
-simply reinforcing and adding height to current levees...?
-maybe a backup system of aquaducts..that would be mostly dry but could
handle any overflow if original levee breaks again?
-house 'workers' distance away from workplace (high ground) but provide
highspeed rail public transportation?
-simply re-build houses, but on concrete stilts 10 feet above ground?

That's an interesting question - I'm not sure it will ever return to
being an "urban" center like it was and in my opinion, should never
return to being an "urban" center.

On the other hand, how do you service the tourist industry with an
available labor source and how do you take a major port and turn it
into a ghost town.

When I lived in New Orleans back in the '70s, it was entirely
different than it was three weeks ago. There was one "skyscraper" in
town and that was One Shell Square. The oil industry was HQ'd out of
Houston and Dallas. Most of the industry centered around the shipping
industry and was located along the waterfront. The JAX brewery had
been abandoned and the only thing left was the French Quarter and Cafe
Dumond as attractants for tourism. Even Mardi Gras was almost
entirely a local event.

That's what I think New Orleans should return to.

The real question is if anybody has the guts to do that.\

They need building codes that will not allow habital space below the flood
plan. The other half of the problem is that a major part of the city is
constantly sinking.