Dave,

My point exactly. Man can try to hold back Mother Nature, by diverting
waters, building levees etc. and we can succeed for awhile, but in the long
run, Mother Nature will win.

For the past 30 yrs. people have been talking about NO being flooded, so no
one should have been surprised when it happened. We should have had a much
better evacuation plan and emergency relief plan in place.

All along the Mississippi there are breaks in the levee system, causing
flooding on a much greater magnitude than if we did not have the levees.



"Dave Hall" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 9 Sep 2005 11:57:27 -0400, "Starbuck's"
wrote:

Chuck,
The problem is not only upstream, but all the way along the Mississippi.

The area NO is built is part of the Mississippi Delta. NO and the
Mississippi Delta is supposed to flood. NO would flood even if no one
lived
upstream of NO.


wrote in message
roups.com...

Butch Davis wrote:
Interesting that 54% of Americans polled say don't rebuild the flooded
parts
of NO below sea level.

That makes good fiscal sense and good safety sense. Regardless of who
is
or
is not to blame for the progress of the life saving efforts in NO, I
believe
everyone can agree that the effort was made incredibly more difficult
by
the
flooding. If NO had been affected by wind rather than by flood the
rescue
efforts would have been vastly simplified.

I agree with the majority of Americans. Lets save the Quarter and the
hotels necessary to support the Quarter's tourist industry, but lets
not
perpetuate the gross mistake of building a major city below sea level.
It
would be unsafe and a horrible waste of the people's treasure.

Butch

I'd get busy and let the Dutch know about this new policy. They have
built below sea level for almost ever.

How fricking ridiculous for everybody upstream to screw up the
drainage, pave over all the soil, and then tell the folks downstream
they need to tear down their city because it can't withstand the flood
waters that have been artificially diverted there.

We all need to be responsible for our own environmental impacts, not
just shove the problem downstream and tell the folks that when it gets
too unbearable they need to tear down the city overwhelmed by the
impacts of somebody else's selfish land use.


Uh, if I am not mistaken the flood didn't come from the river, it came
from the Gulf - more specifically from a "lake" that is part of the
Gulf. The water certainly was not the result of too rapid of runoff
from areas upriver from NO. The Gulf side levee was breached by the
storm surge from the Gulf and allowed the Gulf, which is above the
level of the city, to flood in. If the rest of the Mississippi were
pristine the same level of flooding would have occured.

Tha Other Dave Hall


"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by
those who have not got it." -- G.B. Shaw

wrote:
*JimH* wrote:

Folks who want to live in hurricane hot spots understand the exposures. If
rebuilding is done in hurricane prone areas let the owners be self insured
and limit government funding to only search and rescue.

A cold viewpoint? Yep. But I am tired of paying for the damage done by
hurricanes along coastal areas, both in my taxes and my insurance premiums.





Early reports indicate that many insurance companies are denying
coverage across the board to anybody who has a house underwater and who
does not specifically have flood insurance. Even though most policies
would cover "wind damage" associated with a major storm, the adjusters
are so far telling people that the flood was a different hazard and
they aren't covered.

So, in effect, a lot of the victims of this thing will turn out to be
self insured (financially ruined) in the end. No tax dollars and no
insurance company losses involved, in many cases.



"Butch Davis" wrote in message
hlink.net...

Interesting that 54% of Americans polled say don't rebuild the flooded
parts of NO below sea level.

That makes good fiscal sense and good safety sense. Regardless of who is
or is not to blame for the progress of the life saving efforts in NO, I
believe everyone can agree that the effort was made incredibly more
difficult by the flooding. If NO had been affected by wind rather than by
flood the rescue efforts would have been vastly simplified.

I agree with the majority of Americans. Lets save the Quarter and the
hotels necessary to support the Quarter's tourist industry, but lets not
perpetuate the gross mistake of building a major city below sea level. It
would be unsafe and a horrible waste of the people's treasure.

Butch



After Hurricane Juan, the gov't threatened to nix aid to any homeowners
who could have bought insurance for the surge damage but didn't. Not
sure what finally happened. The city is complaining that Ottawa has
only sent a fraction of the emergency cleanup funding it promised two
years ago.
http://www.herald.ns.ca/juandownload/juanphotos.html

On Fri, 09 Sep 2005 16:26:34 GMT, Gene Kearns
wrote:

On 9 Sep 2005 07:26:35 -0700, wrote:



I'd get busy and let the Dutch know about this new policy. They have
built below sea level for almost ever.


I think we are talking apples and oranges. The Dutch don't have
hurricanes and AFAIK do not have a major subsidence problem like
southern Louisiana does (at least since about 1300).

Yes, the Dutch, in some areas, do have a subsidence problem. My friend lives in
a small town, Stolwyjk, about 25 km from Rotterdam. Over the last couple years
they have raised all the streets in town about three feet. The buildings
(houses, etc) are built on pilings, but the yards, streets, parks, etc. are not.
They sink.

The streets in the town are cobblestone, for the most part, and are completely
dug up, along with the front yards in the town. Fill is trucked in, and the
space between buildings is brought back up to level. It's strange as hell,
because where their used to be steps on the front of the house, the steps are
now gone. The front door, the yard, and the street are all level again. This
will be repeated in a number (I know not how many) years.
--
John H

"All decisions are the result of binary thinking."

On Fri, 09 Sep 2005 21:58:45 GMT, Gene Kearns
wrote:

On Fri, 09 Sep 2005 17:03:27 -0400, PocoLoco
wrote:


Yes, the Dutch, in some areas, do have a subsidence problem. My friend lives in
a small town, Stolwyjk, about 25 km from Rotterdam. Over the last couple years
they have raised all the streets in town about three feet. The buildings
(houses, etc) are built on pilings, but the yards, streets, parks, etc. are not.
They sink.

The streets in the town are cobblestone, for the most part, and are completely
dug up, along with the front yards in the town. Fill is trucked in, and the
space between buildings is brought back up to level. It's strange as hell,
because where their used to be steps on the front of the house, the steps are
now gone. The front door, the yard, and the street are all level again. This
will be repeated in a number (I know not how many) years.

Wow. Who foots the bill for this continual work? What sort of tax
rates do they have?

Over 60%. And that doesn't cover the tremendous tax they pay on imports, like
automobiles and on fuel.
--
John H

"All decisions are the result of binary thinking."

wrote in message
ups.com...

Butch Davis wrote:
Interesting that 54% of Americans polled say don't rebuild the flooded
parts
of NO below sea level.

That makes good fiscal sense and good safety sense. Regardless of who is
or
is not to blame for the progress of the life saving efforts in NO, I
believe
everyone can agree that the effort was made incredibly more difficult by
the
flooding. If NO had been affected by wind rather than by flood the
rescue
efforts would have been vastly simplified.

I agree with the majority of Americans. Lets save the Quarter and the
hotels necessary to support the Quarter's tourist industry, but lets not
perpetuate the gross mistake of building a major city below sea level.
It
would be unsafe and a horrible waste of the people's treasure.

Butch

I'd get busy and let the Dutch know about this new policy. They have
built below sea level for almost ever.

That would be relevant if the Dutch lived in Hurricane Alley.