Katrina's flood waters lapped against your home, yes? About 6 years ago this architect began pondering on possible flood solutions following the Des Moines IA river flood.
No, not sand bags or levees, something automatic that stops the floodwater w/o much human labor. First idea : miles of refrigeration lines that freezes the rising water into ICE. Very costly and ice FLOATS = the water comes right under it.
Next : bouyant boxes in deep-set chambers that float up as the water rises. Top of boxes is a roadway. Not too practical either. Too much excavation required.
Third idea : 20'x20' hinged, buoyant road panels, piano-hinged atop landward concrete walls and river/sea side dead man anchors to hold them vertical as they FLOAT up into a vertical seawall. Then when the waters abate they float back down into a roadway again.
All natural forces, buoyancy and gravity operate the system, no human effort required. No view-blocking levees or sand bags, NATURE does all the flood protection for your property.
Sketched out the idea, sent it to Des Moines, nat'l FEMA : NOTHING. Then comes KATRINA : maybe NOW they'll listen. Think of the buoyant bridge sections piled top the freeway stanchions in Lake Ponchatrain....
So built a table top model in a lazy B pattern w/5"x5" plywood pieces, styrofoam blocks under them, red thread for dead man anchors, flex webbing between...a year ago december, tested in local swimming pool. It WORKS of course(keeping the interior dry)as the panels swing up to vertical. Took pics.
Sent off pic copies, description, sketch package to 22 coastal states governors for christmas. Half ***ed reply from OR and thank you letter from Gov Riley of AR. He then sent it to his state FEMA guy, where it DIED as I knew it would. He wished me luck in doing it for them for FREE. eeyeah : millions/mile roadway out of my own pocket, eeyeah....
So, on the one hand is this flood road concept that I KNOW works(the model is getting covered with dust/pine needles out in my yard)and burro-mentality governors on the other hand. And yours is Blanco...
You've heard the story of the mexican priest and his burro haven't you? He gets word that one of his flock is dying, on his death bed = extreme unction. He grabs his bible and beads, runs out of his church and jumps on his burro : YAVA BURRO, ARRIBA!
Burro just stands there, unmoving. He jumps off, slaps burro on the rump, prays to its face : burro just stands there, unmoving. Jumps on, SINKS spur, VAYA BURRO, ARRIBA. Nothing.
Jumps off again, grabs a big tree limb lying there and WHACKS burro on the nose as hard as he can.
Burro jumps up and trots off. Father Pepe jumps on and away they go. Little Pablito has taken this all in and yells to him as they trot off : Father Pepe, you are such a kind man, why you hit burro so hard?
I know my son, I know. I slapped burro, I prayed to burro, I spurred burro, then I realized that I first had to get the JACKASS' ATTENTION!
Sadly Katrina didn't get the JACKASS' ATTENTION, just throwing MONEY at it willy-nilly doesn't solve the problem, building a FLOOD ROAD would = modify existing coastal roads.