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 didnt 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, its 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 wont 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, youre 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. Heres 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
Indeed. Given the almost religious fervor of the people and the money behind the environmental movement, this would be a problem.
You have the advantage of me. I've seen a Discovery Channel show about the New Waterway barrier, and it is, by far, the most impressive structure of that type in the world. Nevertheless, a Cat 4 or 5 hurricane storm surge can be 30+ feet over high tide and is not a mere wave but a sustained upwelling of the sea. Could the Dutch withstand that? Perhaps, perhaps not; but, in fairness, their system seems to be defense in depth and able to stand the loss of a single barrier in a way that New Orleans' levees could not.
Absolute rubbish. You have no idea what the hell you are talking about.
The port could be rebuilt without having to subsidize the whole bloomin' Big Easy II.
You mean "dike", don't you? The other might be amazing too.
I had to laugh. My son is an undergraduate engineering student. During his frosh orientation a couple years ago, he was told "there are 3 S's--study, sleep and social. You get 2 out of 3, take your pick."
Part way through his soph year he commented to me "they were wrong, you only get 1 out of 3"
Why not just bite the bullet and let the Atchafalaya River capture the Mississippi? The Mississippi changes it's outlets to the Gulf of Mexico every few thousand years anyway.
The dutch are pretty serious about protecting themselves against North Sea storms. Follow the link below to learn more. The force of the storms is of course an important factor, but only one of many. I am quite confident that our primary levees would have dealt with the circumstances in NOLA easily.
http://www.tawinfo.nl/engels/index_en.htm
Thank you. I'll bookmark that for future ference. Easy to for get how much of nothwestern Europe is river delta and how much is invested in controlling those rivers. Of coyerse, none of these rivers darins as much water as the Mississippi, but depite all that we HAVE invested, it seems not enough considering the economic importance of the lower Mississippi. Too much to be left to the vagaries of (a famously corrupt) local government and congressional porkbarreling.
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