Posted on 01/15/2006 7:31:50 AM PST by Libloather
Blanco: Netherlands trip could help with future flood protection
U. S. Congressman, William Jefferson, D-La., right, pauses during a press event at Kurhaus in Scheveningen, the Netherlands, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2006. At left are, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., center. (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)
BATON ROUGE, La. Governor Kathleen Blanco says a trip to the Netherlands to study the flood control systems for the below sea-level nation showed Louisiana officials engineering marvels that could be used in future flood protection for the New Orleans area.
Blanco returned a day earlier from her visit to the country with Louisiana's two U-S senators, Mary Landrieu and David Vitter, and other government and business leaders in a 50-member delegation. The delegation met with Dutch leaders about the Netherlands' unified approach to storm protection.
She said she learned Louisiana needs to work more closely with the U-S Army Corps of Engineers to shore up its hurricane protection.
Holland recently completed a 50-year program to build dams, sea walls, and surge barriers designed to protect the south of the country against almost any storm. It includes the twin rotating gates that can seal the mouth of Rotterdam's harbor against a storm surge and the set of 62 big gates that can close off the Oosterschelde estuary in Zeeland.
Blanco says the Dutch leaders she met were amazed that questions were raised in America about how much flood protection should be given to the New Orleans area.
A second group of Gulf Coast officials, largely from southwestern Louisiana and east Texas, is planning to make a similar trip to the Netherlands in March.
The U.S. delegation, led by Sen. Mary L. Landrieu (4th L) and Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander (5th L), walks past the Maeslandkeering during an excursion to study flood-control systems in Hoek van Holland, the Netherlands, January 11, 2006. Also pictured are; Senator David Vitter (2nd L), Dutch vice minister Melanie Schultz van Haegen, and Governor Kathleen Blanco (centre with black hat). REUTERS/Michael Kooren
Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, left, U.S. Sen. David Vitter, center, and U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu , right, during a visit at the Maeslant Barrier gates near Hoek van Holland, the Netherlands, Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2006. A delegation of 50 U.S. goverment officials, academics and business representives is on a three-day tour in the Netherlands to study flood prevention techniques in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The American visitors are focusing their attention on the so-called Delta Project, a 50-year project that constructed dikes, giant sea walls and flood gates that keep the low-lying country dry. The project was built after a similar flood in the Netherlands in 1953 left around 1,800 people dead. U.S. lawmakers Mary Landrieu, David Vitter and Bill Jefferson, and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco are leading officials on the visit. (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)
Media film from the MS Arca ship in front of the Maeslant Barrier gates in the Nieuwe Waterweg near Hoek van Holland, the Netherlands, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2006. (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)
From left: U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, Dutch Vice Minister for Transport, Public Works and Water Management Melanie Schultz van Haegen, and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco during a press event at Kurhaus in Scheveningen, the Netherlands, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2006. (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)
From left: U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, Dutch Vice Minister for Transport, Public Works and Water Management Melanie Schultz van Haegen, and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco during a press conference at Kurhaus in Scheveningen, the Netherlands, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2006. (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, left, and Dutch Vice Minister for Transport, Public Works and Water Management Melanie Schultz van Haegen, right, during a press event at Kurhaus in Scheveningen, the Netherlands, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2006. (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)
How much did this trip cost taxpayers?
I am sure the corps already knows what to do.
We pay for their vacation and I bet we don't even get a t-shirt.
Blanco has got to be one of the ugliest women alive. (No pics of Halfbright, please!)
We pay for their vacation and I bet we don't even get a t-shirt.
Are they afraid to look at each other (pic #3)
Are they afraid to look at each other (last pic)
What is the point of sending politicians, and women politicians at that, to "study" engineering?
Is it possible to put enough zeros to the right of the decimal place to express the vanishingly tiny probability that they understood even a scintilla of what they were being shown?
I'm sure no pocket calculator could express such a tiny number.
This is what we used to call a boondogle!
It accomplishes nothing. It's a waste of taxpayers money. And it provides press coverage/vacation trip to politicians who screwed the situation up in the first place.
Their next trip should be to prison!
...I can't determine if Blanko looks indefinitely stupid, or extremely jealous in this photo
Doogle
Both.
A 50 year project? Just think of the possibilities for cost-overruns, graft, kickbacks, etc., etc. I bet they were squirming with delight.
How many Category 4 hurricanes has the Dutch system withstood?
The Dutch were unsure as Blanco broke down blubbering if they were tears of joy, exhaustion, fear, sadness, or the effects of an Amsterdam withdrawel kicking in.
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