Posted on 03/06/2006 4:35:55 PM PST by Saints fan
Shortly after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert wondered aloud whether the Federal Government should help rebuild a city much of which lies below sea level. The most tough-minded answer to that question demonstrates that rebuilding and protecting New Orleans is in the national interest. Reason: The very same geological forces that created that port are what make it vulnerable to Category 5 hurricanes and also what make it indispensable.
One such force is the Mississippi River. Once, the Gulf of Mexico extended north to Cape Girardeau, Mo., but the river gradually deposited enough sediment into a receding sea to create tens of thousands of square miles of land stretching south to the present mouth of the river. Long after New Orleans was first settled, the entire region remained above sea level and safe from hurricanes. Engineers prevented river floods by building levees and kept shipping channels open by constructing jetties two miles out into the ocean so that the river dropped its sediment into deep water. Before the jetties were built, 100 ships at a time often waited days for deep enough water to pass over sandbars blocking the Mississippi's mouth. The levees and jetties stopped sediment from feeding the deltas; the land sank, and coastal Louisiana shrank. Similarly, other great ports on deltaic rivers, like Rotterdam, are also below sea level; the airport serving Amsterdam is 20 ft. below sea level, lower than any part of New Orleans.
If engineering the Mississippi made New Orleans vulnerable, it also created enormous value. New Orleans is the busiest port in the U.S.; 20% of all U.S. exports, and 60% of our grain exports, pass through it. Offshore Louisiana oil and gas wells supply 20% of domestic oil production. But to service that industry, canals and pipelines were dug through the land, greatly accelerating the washing away of coastal Louisiana. The state's land loss now totals 1,900 sq. mi. That land once protected the entire region from hurricanes by acting as a sponge to soak up storm surges. If nothing is done, in the foreseeable future an additional 700 sq. mi. will disappear, putting at risk port facilities and all the energy-producing infrastructure in the Gulf.
There is no debate about the reality of that land loss and its impact. On that the energy industry and environmentalists agree. There is also no doubt about the solution. Chip Groat, a former director of the U.S. Geological Survey, says, "This land loss can be managed, and New Orleans can be protected, even with projected sea-level rise." Category 5 hurricane protection for the region, including coastal restoration, storm-surge barriers and improved levees, would cost about $40 billion--over 30 years. Compare that with the cost to the economy of less international competitiveness (the result of increased freight charges stemming from loss of the efficiencies of the port of New Orleans), higher energy prices and more vulnerable energy supplies. Compare that with the cost of rebuilding the energy and port infrastructure elsewhere. Compare that with the fact that in the past two years, we have spent more to rebuild Iraq's wetlands than Louisiana's. National interest requires this restoration. Our energy needs alone require it. Yet the White House proposes spending only $100 million for coastal restoration.
Washington also has a moral burden. It was the Federal Government's responsibility to build levees that worked, and its failure to do so ultimately led to New Orleans' being flooded. The White House recognized that responsibility when it proposed an additional $4.2 billion for housing in New Orleans, but the first priority remains flood control. Without it, individuals will hesitate to rebuild, and lenders will decline to invest.
How should flood control be paid for? States get 50% of the tax revenues paid to the Federal Government from oil and gas produced on federally owned land. States justify that by arguing that the energy production puts strains on their infrastructure and environment. Louisiana gets no share of the tax revenue from the oil and gas production on the outer continental shelf. Yet that production puts an infinitely greater burden on it than energy production from other federal territory puts on any other state. If we treat Louisiana the same as other states and give it the same share of tax revenue that other states receive, it will need no other help from the government to protect itself. Every day's delay makes it harder to rebuild the city. It is time to act. It is well past time.
Shortly after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert wondered aloud whether the Federal Government should help rebuild a city much of which lies below sea level. The most tough-minded answer to that question demonstrates that rebuilding and protecting New Orleans is in the national interest. Reason: The very same geological forces that created that port are what make it vulnerable to Category 5 hurricanes and also what make it indispensable.
One such force is the Mississippi River. Once, the Gulf of Mexico extended north to Cape Girardeau, Mo., but the river gradually deposited enough sediment into a receding sea to create tens of thousands of square miles of land stretching south to the present mouth of the river. Long after New Orleans was first settled, the entire region remained above sea level and safe from hurricanes. Engineers prevented river floods by building levees and kept shipping channels open by constructing jetties two miles out into the ocean so that the river dropped its sediment into deep water. Before the jetties were built, 100 ships at a time often waited days for deep enough water to pass over sandbars blocking the Mississippi's mouth. The levees and jetties stopped sediment from feeding the deltas; the land sank, and coastal Louisiana shrank. Similarly, other great ports on deltaic rivers, like Rotterdam, are also below sea level; the airport serving Amsterdam is 20 ft. below sea level, lower than any part of New Orleans.
If engineering the Mississippi made New Orleans vulnerable, it also created enormous value. New Orleans is the busiest port in the U.S.; 20% of all U.S. exports, and 60% of our grain exports, pass through it. Offshore Louisiana oil and gas wells supply 20% of domestic oil production. But to service that industry, canals and pipelines were dug through the land, greatly accelerating the washing away of coastal Louisiana. The state's land loss now totals 1,900 sq. mi. That land once protected the entire region from hurricanes by acting as a sponge to soak up storm surges. If nothing is done, in the foreseeable future an additional 700 sq. mi. will disappear, putting at risk port facilities and all the energy-producing infrastructure in the Gulf.
There is no debate about the reality of that land loss and its impact. On that the energy industry and environmentalists agree. There is also no doubt about the solution. Chip Groat, a former director of the U.S. Geological Survey, says, "This land loss can be managed, and New Orleans can be protected, even with projected sea-level rise." Category 5 hurricane protection for the region, including coastal restoration, storm-surge barriers and improved levees, would cost about $40 billion--over 30 years. Compare that with the cost to the economy of less international competitiveness (the result of increased freight charges stemming from loss of the efficiencies of the port of New Orleans), higher energy prices and more vulnerable energy supplies. Compare that with the cost of rebuilding the energy and port infrastructure elsewhere. Compare that with the fact that in the past two years, we have spent more to rebuild Iraq's wetlands than Louisiana's. National interest requires this restoration. Our energy needs alone require it. Yet the White House proposes spending only $100 million for coastal restoration.
Washington also has a moral burden. It was the Federal Government's responsibility to build levees that worked, and its failure to do so ultimately led to New Orleans' being flooded. The White House recognized that responsibility when it proposed an additional $4.2 billion for housing in New Orleans, but the first priority remains flood control. Without it, individuals will hesitate to rebuild, and lenders will decline to invest.
How should flood control be paid for? States get 50% of the tax revenues paid to the Federal Government from oil and gas produced on federally owned land. States justify that by arguing that the energy production puts strains on their infrastructure and environment. Louisiana gets no share of the tax revenue from the oil and gas production on the outer continental shelf. Yet that production puts an infinitely greater burden on it than energy production from other federal territory puts on any other state. If we treat Louisiana the same as other states and give it the same share of tax revenue that other states receive, it will need no other help from the government to protect itself. Every day's delay makes it harder to rebuild the city. It is time to act. It is well past time.
Ten reasons why NO was destroyed:
#1 Local Corruption.
#2 Local Corruption
#3 Local Corruption
#4 ditto
#5 ditto
#6 through #10 ditto
New Orleans had a greater moral burden. The behavior of it's elected officials and "let's stay and party the hurricane away" citizenry showed how badly they'd failed theirs.
A common error to talk of the state as if it is an individual subject to psychology. If the state is an individual subject to psychology, it would be considered insane.
I am not a racist, and have no ill feelings to anyone of another color , my complaint is with the idiots in the media. I live in this armpit of America that use to be a wonderful and beautiful place to live (Gulfport), it seems the media doesn't give a rats arse about anywhere else except New Orleans.
Places like Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, totally wiped off the earth, no mention, no care, no coverage.
Damn you media idiots, for your fixation on New Orleans, we all are knee deep in crap here. Every time we look out the window while making a pot of coffee, go to the store, get a hair cut, go to work (for those of us whose jobs were destroyed) we see the devastation. There are days people OUTSIDE OF NEW ORLEANS that people don't want to wake up, today is one.
Jeff Davis
There was a 5.2 earthquake a few weeks ago, 100 miles south of NO. It is the largest quake ever in that area, and was ignored by the MSM. The New Madrid Fault is overdue for a 'big one' -- no telling what that would do to NO/levee.
Hurricanes, quakes and bombs are all threats.
Totally agree. But I also think that there are parts of the city worth preserving. The Garden District and the French Quarter, for sure. And maybe other areas.
But that's all for historic and sentimental reasons, not because we need the city.
According to other postings, there had been plans to build floodgates between Lake Ponchatrain and the canals; such plans were scuttled by environmental groups. Had such floodgates been built, the breach of a canal wall would have dumped a canalfull of water into the city, but not a lakefull.
Part of it has to do with getting into them, and a bigger part has to do with staying there once you get in.
That's just the way it is.
In my lifetime I've seen Hurricane Hazel visit my homestate of Indiana and rain for 30+ days. Flooded everything. State looked like a lake. Not a culvert or small bridge left anywhere. There was a lot of devastation near creeks and streams that looked like raging rivers.
Yet, when last January 2005 came around, and there were massive rains on top of a 3 foot snowfall leftover from December, and the whole place looked like another Great Lake, with devastation near creeks and sreams on the order of what you would expect from a raging, flood swollen Mississippi River, the Main Stream Media, local media, and even amateur soothsayers and tale spinners didn't seem to recall or know about the devastation nearly half a century ago.
There was little written about it at the time in fact, because, lo and behold, there was so much disruption of normal life it just didn't get written.
Still, people knew.
BTW, the damage in 2005 was substantially less than that of the earlier floods ~ mostly because folks learned what to do to make sure the damage didn't happen. Part of it has to do with NOT BUILDING IN THE FLOOD PLAIN, and certainly NOT IN THE FLOOD PATH!
One would hope New Orleans folks, and other Gulf Coast folks as well, would learn.
A news article this confusing can not be used for your argument. The engineering reasons for the final depth of the sheet piling is not fully explained.
Sheet piling is metal. Needs maintenance over time.
Spending money on a rat hole is insanity. New Orleans population should be relocated to flood free land and the part of the city on higher land made into an amusement park.
First off, they did not fail on the Jefferson Parish side, did they? Secondly, let's recall who ran the city and parish governement in Orleans, shall we? Shall we look at all the crap built into any Federal bid? Thirdly, it's my city as well. The Feds responded far and away better than did any of our locals or State, except for Harahan and Kenner . Try admitting that instead of parroting the spew from the Times-Pickyournose. Pehaps you too are one of those attempting salvage Blank-o by smearing the Feds. Maybe Benson will toss some of his money there ,too, ya think?
Next point, each time any of these areas were to be inspected or proposals for better protection were made , did not our caring folks at Save the Lake get in the way or have the race card tossed out there by COUP ,SOUL or BOLD? Did they not convince the gullible in the 9th Ward using racial politics mixed with junk science to ward off those nasty flood gates?
You're going to have to do better than this or I will be forced to believe you're just a simpering waste , waiting for your next Federal goodie bag.
IMO, those parts of the city that are above sea level should be saved, those parts below it should revert to parkland or farmland.
Hey dude, I'm not talking about the response after the hurricane, federal or state. I'm definately no Blanco supporter and I in no way blame George W Bush. I blame the Corps of Engineers. Blanco and Nagin were nowhere around when the levee walls were designed and built. If you want to believe I'm a simpering waste, go ahead. I am forced to believe you are a.... well I won't go there.
The walls didn't fail because of a lack of maintenance, they failed because they were not driven deep enough.
I think my neighborhood is worth preserving, for sentimental reasons.
IIRC, on the day of the Chicago fire, a fire struck a Wisconsin town with even more deadly effect and yet less was written of it at the time.
On the evening of October 8, 1871 devastating fires erupted at virtually the same moment in three different states in the region of the Great Lakes—Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan. The outbursts included the notorious “Chicago fire”, but also an even more devastating fire in Wisconsin, the worst in U.S. history, covering some 400 square miles. At the same time, wildfires also erupted across much of Michigan.
http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2006/arch06/060209chicagofire.htm
A quote from an anit-federalist and power hungry moron. I believe in the constitution and it clearly states it is NOT Washington's moral burden.
If Louisiana and New Orleans want levees that work it's their repsonsibilty and not that of the other 49 states. Boston wants a big hole in the ground? They should fund it and not me. I live in Tennessee and I want the TVA destroyed. Why should I get subsidized electricty from the rest of the country?
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