Pols Evacuate En Masse To Holland [More on Louisiana Boondoogle]

The Times-Picayune ^ | Friday, January 13, 2006 | James Gill

[Thrusher]

A bunch of politicians has returned from a junket in Holland.

Sorry, let me rephrase that. A delegation of selfless public officials is just back from a fact-finding mission that will help us adapt Dutch flood-control technology in Louisiana.

OK, evacuees. You all can move back, because there'll be no repeat of the Katrina disaster. We've got the skinny now. Gov. Kathleen Blanco has gawped at the Maeslandt Barrier, and we can all sleep easier.

Of course, Blanco had plenty of back-up. It would have been foolish to send a small team and risk missing some useful tidbit. The delegation of officials and assorted hangers-on was 50-strong, and must have taken quite a while to file into the room for the welcoming speech by Deputy Minister for Transport and Water Management Melanie Schultz van Haegen.

It must have been a bit like awaiting a pronouncement from the Oracle at Delphi, for the Dutch, as we have been frequently reminded of late, live about as far below sea level as Atlantis and are thus absolute whizzes at flood control.

The minister revealed her insight. What you need to do, she revealed, is to find a boy to stick his finger in any hole that appears in a levee.

Not really, but that's what she might as well have said. The advice she did give -- spend more money on hurricane defense -- was somewhat lacking in originality. Blanco, U.S. Sens. Mary Landrieu and David Vitter, Congressman William Jefferson and all the others present have been making that argument ever since Katrina and doing their best to shake more simoleons loose from the feds.

[Thrusher]

More from the article:

Louisiana politicians may not need any urging to spend money, but the trip was billed as a necessary education that will help prevent a repeat of the Katrina disaster. "We want to learn from the know-how you have already acquired," Blanco told Dutch officials.

The Dutch do indeed know the secret to avoiding the devastation of hurricanes. It is to live in latitudes where they do not occur. There must be a limit to what we can learn about hurricane protection from a system that is not required to cater for them.

[The Old Hoosier]

Ouch!

[sarasota]

I wonder if that thought occurred to even one of the 50 delegates.

[Blueflag]

While they do not suffer from TROPICAL cyclones, they indeed deal with ferocious cyclonic storms.

They deal with similar threats, if not Cat 5 threats.

[dirtboy]

While they do not suffer from TROPICAL cyclones, they indeed deal with ferocious cyclonic storms.

Sorry, but you don't get 30+ foot storm surge from extratropical cyclones.

[mtbopfuyn]

I'm sure Blanco paid for it out of her own pocket.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Why are we going to pay tens of billions of dollars to build in a city that was virtually destroyed and is below sea level? Bulldoze the houses that were flooded and open the levees again and let the sea have it.

[Redbob]

This article critical of Dimocrat politicians actually appeared in the NO Slimes-Picayune???

Is it the End of Time?
Has Hell actually frozen over?

[Kirkwood]

A flood of 4 feet can be just as economically devastating as one of 30 feet.

[Redbob]

"The Dutch do indeed know the secret to avoiding the devastation of hurricanes. It is to live in latitudes where they do not occur."

And what pray tell what those latitudes be?

That approach didn't work all that well for them in I believe it was 1953?

[Kirkwood]

Because New Orleans is a strategically significant port city, among a number of other reasons.

[Skooz]

The Dutch do indeed know the secret to avoiding the devastation of hurricanes. It is to live in latitudes where they do not occur. There must be a limit to what we can learn about hurricane protection from a system that is not required to cater for them.

That's what I have been saying all along, albeit not as well.

[Wonder Warthog]

"The Dutch do indeed know the secret to avoiding the devastation of hurricanes. It is to live in latitudes where they do not occur. There must be a limit to what we can learn about hurricane protection from a system that is not required to cater for them."

While it is true that no HURRICANES bother the Dutch dike systems, the storms that blow in from the North Sea provide wind-speeds that are equivalent to Category 4 and 5 hurricanes--so the engineering requirements are similar.

[Blood of Tyrants]

There is enough land still above water for people to support the port.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Sorry, but you don't get 30+ foot storm surge from extratropical cyclones."

Wrong. "Storm surge" is simply wind-blown water. If the windspeed is similar to a Cat-5 hurricane, you WILL get a similar surge.

[wita]

I would agree, North Sea storms are legendary. The many times Holland has been inundated in the past, were usually associated with horrific storms and the surge. Doesn't take much when your walls are X feet higer than the high tide. Exceed X and you are inundated.

[edwin hubble]

"The Dutch do indeed know the secret to avoiding the devastation of hurricanes. It is to live in latitudes
where they do not occur."

The North Sea storms are brutal - and they brought Holland many deaths and much devastation. (1953 for example).
Equivalent to category 5.

[sgtbono2002]

They sent the cops to Las Vegas, so why shouldnt they send their shyster politicians to Holland.

[macmedic892]

Thanks, BoT!
But I live just across the Miss. R. and didn't flood (the West Bank didn't flood except due to rain/lack of pump operators) . . .
So we should just bulldoze the whole economic engine of South Louisiana and permanently displace millions of people?
While we're at it, let's abandon the West Coast of California because--you know--the big earthquake is going to happen one day. Abandon Seattle, because Mount Rainier--a volcano--will erupt again one day, and kill thousands and destroy millions of Starbucks. Move someplace safe, like St. Louis . . . oops, the New Madrid fault.
Ummm, maybe we can find someplace where we can put all our industry and people that would be completely free of risk of natural disaster. Let me know when you find it.
But until then, our levees can be repaired. The people and businesses are coming back . . .
Sure, some places had 10-15 feet of water; but the overwhelming odds are that something identical to this won't happen again in a looooooong time. And since we will improve the levee system and replace the old dilapidated houses, an identical storm twenty years from now won't be nearly as devastating.

[rawcatslyentist]

Time for random drug tests!!! Hey they do it to us, why shouldn't we hold them to the same standards... Oh yeah they're the rulling party members. Just because there are two parties doesn't mean they aren't the same party.

ABC CBS NBC CNN its all the SAME, Propaganda.
Might as well call them all AmeriJazerra.
Show them how much Psychological Gravitas Hugh Bris has. Vote with your remote! Shut down the Alphabet channels. *"aka the ENEMEDIA

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