New Orleans Flooding May Last for Days

ap ^ | 8.30.05 | JEFF DONN, Associated Press Writer

[Keith in Iowa]

Try weeks. Or Months.

The rains falling in the Ohio & Tennessee river valleys all wind up in the Mississippi River...

[bikepacker67]

Rebuilding New Orleans should be driven by logic rather than emotional affinity.

[bluesagewoman]

If the tropical storm dumps rain along the Mississippi while it travels north, the flooding may continue longer. It is my impression that TN and KY are going to be deluged. That water goes somewhere.

[bikepacker67]

Help me out folks...

But weren't MANY towns along the MS relocated to higher ground, after the 1993 floods?

I think New Orleanians should consider that prospect.

Rebuilding in the bowl would be the height of stupidity and hubris.

[blackie]

Roger that ~ it'll be a long, slow process!

[commish]

The flood waters that may come down the Mississippi can be channeled away from new orleans by opening the gates to the achafalaya flood basin. Problem there is that that move will just send the flood waters to Lake Charles.

A more pressing problem is what they do with the "toxic Mix" -- if they get the pumps working and just pump the water out of N.O. they will be compounding the environmental disaster 100 fold. All of the now disease ridden, polluted water will enter Lake Ponchartrain and the Mississippi and make its way down to the gulf.

The Mississippi delta will be poisoned for years to come.

NOw once they figure out how to get the water out , how to clean it, and where to send it -- you will be left with a LOVE CANAL toxic site where the City of New orleans used to sit.

[Robe]

Yup, after spending A few hundred Billion dollars whats the guarantee that it doesn't take another hit next year ???
I think ya put emotions aside and crank up the bulldozers

[RobbyS]

Look at the map. Where else would you suggest?

[RobbyS]

There are no guanantees, and after all, this is NOT a Venice, which has long since seen its days of glory. Its a major petrocenter. But hard thinking needs to be done.

[ArtyFO]

If N.O. comes back it should be rebuilt as another Venice. Only an idiot would build in a swamp.

[glorgau]

Perhaps they should do like Chicago did in the mid 19th century - raise the city!

The grade level of Chicago used to be many feet lower.
see City Streets: How Chicago Raised Itself Out of the Mud and Astonished the World

[TheSpottedOwl]

I think it would be a good idea to rebuild, but what about what's left of the historical sites?

[Izzy Dunne]

"Days"? I doubt it. "Weeks" will be more like it.

Click here to see a NOVA episode (from January) on what N.O. faces - everybody new it could happen.
They're in a bowl, and the walls that kept the water OUT will now work to keep it IN.

[DTogo]

I'm no engineer, but once the water is in and stays there for several weeks/months, will the soil of N.O. remain useful for reconstruction? Or will it be so saturated and covered with silt that N.O. has to be filled-in or written off?

[Jorge]

Look at the map. Where else would you suggest?

Any place on higher ground.
This was a disaster waiting to happern.
Rebuilding below sea level is just nuts.

[uncbob]

In a frustrating catch-22, it will be hard to fix the pumps and restore their power while they are under water, but it's hard to drain the water without the pumps, the flood experts warned.

And why the hell weren't these pumps on backup power to start with

Mayor didn't think they would lose power ?

[uncbob]

Rebuilding below sea level is just nuts.

Building it there to begin with was

[Tarpon]

They could also build elevated homes. Some in our area are 20 feet to the first floor. The bottom floor is breakout, no permanent structure. Made out of reinforced Concrete block.

A simple way to do it is to adopt the Miami-Dade Building codes that went in after Andrew -- and enforce them. Then require FEMA minimum elevations for flood plains. That should put most rebuilt homes out of reach, but the floods may still come.

[Paul C. Jesup]

The rains falling in the Ohio & Tennessee river valleys all wind up in the Mississippi River...

Actually, if the levees on the Mississippi River, which 10 higher than the lake levees that have broken, break, it's goodbye New Orleans for good.