Posted on 08/31/2005 1:52:50 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob
My engineering training kicked in when I saw the NASA photographs from space of New Orleans, and of the whole Gulf Coast of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. There is an obvious solution to the New Orleans problem. The Dutch have already demonstrated it.
Take New Orleans as the first and worst example. The pumps, levees and canals intended to protect New Orleans have been controlled by local authorities. They left three of the four pumping stations dependent on the local power grid.
Hellooo. The precise time those pumps are most needed is during a storm when the local power grid may fail. Yet local authorities saw fit to outfit only one pumping station with backup diesel generators to continue functioning.
At least one station was knocked out because its roof blew off. Hellooo. If a pumping station, desperately needed in a hurricane, has a roof that cannot withstand 130 MPH winds, someone was asleep at the switch.
The Internet gives some history of local control of these facilities. I understand that years ago, new and more powerful pumps were bought for these stations. But they were not installed, because the contract didn’t include that. So those pumps sat in a warehouse owned by a friend of Mayor Moon Landrieu (father of the current Senator Landrieu), incurring storage costs for four years, before another contract with another friend of the Mayor could be signed to install them.
This story is typical of many about various parts of New Orleans government. In any crisis in that city, it’s a race between corruption and incompetence for which will be the primary cause of the latest public failure. If New Orleans is to survive as a city, the first step must be to yank authority for flood control out of local hands and give it to the Army Corps of Engineers.
I refer to the Dutch example because that nation seized thousands of square miles from the Atlantic Ocean, and has held it for decades against the worst storms the Atlantic could toss at its dikes, dams, and flood gates. Apply that thinking first to New Orleans.
Nearby Lake Pontchartrain is one of the largest lakes in the United States. Its water storage capacity is enormous. So, the answer is simple. Dam the mouth of the Lake where it meets the Gulf, and release water only when the Lake level is higher than the Gulf.
Locks could guarantee continued access by boats and barges between the Lake and the Gulf. And that would make the Lake a safe refuge for boats, when the next major storm comes.
Second, rebuild the levees at a reliable level to withstand the worst storm surge in history, and rebuild the pumping stations so they can handle the demand, running on generator power that won’t fail. Build in redundancy, so maybe half of the pumping stations can fail, but the remaining ones can meet the demand.
The water storage capacity of Lake Pontchartrain may even be sufficient to prevent floods on the Mississippi from threatening New Orleans. Build a storm canal above New Orleans from the River into Lake Pontchartrain. Then, when a flood stage from heavy rains anywhere in the central US up to Minnesota threatens to break into New Orleans, open the canal to divert into the Lake enough water to break the flood crest.
Now look at the whole Gulf Coast. Word is now coming out that thousands of people, not merely hundreds, have died in coastal areas in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. All that area cannot be protected. On a rational basis, using shortest lines, build dikes (Dutch example again) to protect part of those areas.
Beach areas which are the basis of the important tourist industry, would remain open. However, areas outside the dikes would have mandatory evacuation. Any who refused to evacuate would be given up for dead. Rescue would not be attempted.
New construction in the beach area should be on stilts. If illiterate Hondurans can get the message, so can Americans. The market would guarantee minimal functional construction in that area, if the Feds said, “No insurance, you’re on your own.” Like beach bars in the Caribbean, it would be enough to serve the purpose, easily replaced when destroyed.
There you have it. Problems solved for the long term. Here’s the link to the NASA photographs which show exactly how this could work: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3
About the Author: John Armor is a First Amendment attorney and author who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
I think the Dutch solution is like a Dutch Date-- New Orleans can pay its own way without expecting Uncle Sam to treat.
Lets do it. The pumping issue alone, as it stood, was a cluster$%#! when I heard about it. Commercial power only? WTF were they thinking? If they'd had proper pumps, and full 24/7 capability things would not be as bad as they are now. All the rest; levee's locks, damns whatever, are doable.
The link is at the end of my article. But being unskilled, it's not a click link. Anyone can turn that into a working link, please.
John
Hows life on the other side of the pond ?
In all honesty, we'll probably see Baton Rouge grow in population quite a bit for that reason.
Doing just fine...I'm sorry about what's going on with you and yours.
If you need Britain's help, just say so, and you'll have it. The pictures streaming in, particularly thanks to ITV News' reporter Robert Moore, are devastating.
Regards, Ivan
While I can't speak for CB, I can for myself. I was an American before I was a conservative.
Let me tell you something about us American's: We can be a very stubborn and pig headed bunch at times. When adversity deals us a blow we tend to get a little ticked off, pick ourselves back up, and fight back.
We have had in the past a "can do" attitude when it came to seemingly impossible tasks (Panama Canal, Man of the moon, etc..) no reason we can't have that attitude back. In fact I think that kind of thinking needs to be rekindled in the country, it's been lacking for some time now, mostly due to liberal whining, political correctness you name it.
So I don't mind putting my conservative creds on the line by saying FU to Katrina, the looters, the naysayers and who or whatever else.
Do they mean 3 out of 4? There are about 22 pumping stations in N.O.
Has Holland withstood Class 5 hurricanes like this one?
I meant Class 4.
Why can't people distinguish between dike and dyke?
Sure, and let's make ensure the Mississippi river is useless for shipping goods in and out of this country.
And walk away from all that oil and natural gas in Louisiana and the delta region of the Gulf.
Yeah, that makes lot of sense for the rest of us.
Yeah 1940 it was called the Wehrmacht.
Do you have a link to see those photos??
Very good! LMAO!
Well, it would probably be pretty hard to do all that looting with wooden shoes....
Try 1953.
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