[timer]

Good report. Having lived and worked as an architect in Houston 20 years ago I know all about soil plasticity(up to 20% expansion)from sedimentary deposits. I live in my native Montana now but am working on my FLOOD ROAD concept/table sized model, in response to Katrina. I thought of this 4 years ago after the flood in Des Moines : buoyant road panels, 20' x 20', piano-hinged on the landward side, dead man anchors on the river/sea side. The rising flood water naturally lifts the panels up into a vertical seawall, then back down into a roadway again as the waters recede. No sandbagging needed, no power requirements; natural forces do all the flood water containment work for you. Will video tape it in action and send to GOVERNORS of coastal states. I've already sent it to state transportation depts : no response as you would suspect. W=P

[WmCraven_Wk]

"...dead man anchors on the river/sea side."

Is this what Jimmy Hoffa is doing now?

[Gondring]

The rising flood water naturally lifts the panels up into a vertical seawall, then back down into a roadway again as the waters recede.

Not to be a naysayer, but this doesn't at all address the other concern that I heard mentioned--the seepage pressure through the berm underneath.