Posted on 09/01/2005 2:22:16 PM PDT by zencat
It makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to rebuild a city that's seven feet under sea level, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said of federal assistance for hurricane-devastated New Orleans.
"It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed," the Illinois Republican said in an interview Wednesday with The Daily Herald of Arlington, Ill.
(Excerpt) Read more at wwltv.com ...
But they have some first-rate looting skills. Many could be very effective members of Congress.
I'm sure when China first started talking about building the dam on the Yellow River (I think) that it wasn't a very popular suggestion to put historic sites under water, but the time has come to consider at least moving the residential areas to higher ground for NO.
Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner! This is so true. I have NEVER understood rebuilding within flood prone areas. This is why flood insurance is required when you build a home in a flood zone. This is why insurance is so much more expensive when people build in areas with a higher chances of said disasters.
Tax dollars should never be used to rebuild - particularly putting said structures right back in forseeable danger.
I haven't read the replies yet, but I am sure someone has said this. I doesn't matter how high they build the city, some day soon global warming will cause the oceans to rise so high they will be drowned again.
Los Angeles is built on a fault line....seattle is built on a volcano ridge. Arent those cities?
Correct, to be exact, The Port of New Orleans is the largest port in the U.S. by volume of goods, and the 5th largest port in the world, so we have to have it.
However, where we put the city is a whole 'nother issue ...
When any elected member of Congress has the guts to say anything like that, I'll be shocked. That horse left the barn way too long ago. Their oath to uphold the Constitution is nothing more than a farcical formality."
A member of Congress said just that, but it over 150 years ago.
Chicago is a police and governmental corruptio problem, not unlike New Orleans, and could be delt with under the "Guarantee of republican government" clause of the Constitution. The terrorists have been taking it in the shorts of late, but they could still cause problems. Either way it's a national security problem and covered under the Constitution. The Hurricanes aren't going to stop hitting New Orleans, even if they will rarely big as severe as Katrina. If it's cheaper to move most of NOLA than to build it up above sea level and strenghten and raise all the levees, then move it.
I rather like the notion of making it a park, with the French Quarter section rebuilt or refubished and protecte by new and better, (But much smaller) levees, with with redundent protection provided by the repaired existing levees. Less area to pump dry, and less to protect from the big storms the forecasters say are comming in the next few decades.
Of course not. Nobody is saying that natural disasters won't happen eventually everywhere. But it is stupid to waste taxpayer money and tempt the Fates by building a city with a giant 'Kick Me!' sign taped to it.
The value of New Orleans (its port) can be rebuilt with a tiny fraction of its prior baggage if good sense dictated construction rather than whimsical nostalgia.
The American Society of Civil Engineers, considers what was done as one of the seven modern wonders of the world.
Netherlands North Sea Protection Works
"This singularly unique, vast and complex system of dams, floodgates, storm surge barriers and other engineered works literally allows the Netherlands to exist. For centuries, the people of the Netherlands have repeatedly attempted to push back the sea, only to watch brutal storm surges flood their efforts, since the nation sits below sea level and its land mass is still sinking."
The North Sea Protection Works consists of two monumental steps the Dutch took to win their struggle to hold back the sea. Step one, a 19-mile-long enclosure dam, was built between 1927 and 1932. The immense dike, 100-yards thick at the waterline, collars the neck of the estuary once known as Zuiderzee. Step two, the Delta Project, was intended to control the treacherous area where the mouths of the Meuse and Rhine Rivers break into a delta. The project's crowning touch was the Eastern Schelde Barrier, a two-mile barrier of tell gates slung between massive concrete piers, which fall only when storm-waters threaten. The North Sea Protection Works exemplifies the ability of humanity to exist side-by-side with the forces of nature.
Over 25% of the Netherlands is below sea level. The balance of land averages only 37' above sea level. Much of the land that was once below sea level is today reclaimed and protected by 1,500 miles of dikes.
America is a great country. We have done the seemingly impossible whether it is sending a man to the moon or settling a continent. Our landscape is littered with amazing feats of engineering. NO will be rebuilt. It can be done and will be done.
It will be rebuilt, the question is, will it be rebuilt where it is now, and if so, will it still be mostly below the level of both the "lake" (actually an arm of the Gulf of Mexico) and the river, which it lies between.
Don't rebuild!
Of course they are. What's your point?
And to a significant extent, they are properly engineered for the threats they are likely to face for the foreseeable future. A Cat4/5 hurricane has always been in New Orlean's foreseeable future.
No, we're actually NOT real good at keeping Mother Nature at bay, she usually wins!
While I'm sure there is some pork in there, at least O'Hare serves as connecting hub for people coming from and going to elsewhere. Besides which, the federal government funds airports everywhere, or at least assists with their funding.
True, but it's Lake Michigan shoreline is right there. It occasionally floods the place, or dumps a bunch lake ice on it. But nothing to the scale of Lake Pontchartrain(sic) draining into the NOLA bowl.
Kansas. ;)
Seriously, we should be carefull how we spend. Dont get me wrong. What about the big dig boondoogle? should we reall build tunnels underwater?
I remember standing on the earth levee in '82 and asking why they were not built stronger (conrete caps) and higher.
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