Comments on: New Orleans: Restoration and Restitution http://www.jawfish.net/wp/archives/94 "We have met the enemy and he is us." - Walt Kelly Sun, 25 Jul 2010 19:34:27 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: jawfish - Castles Built on Sand http://www.jawfish.net/wp/archives/94/comment-page-1#comment-32 jawfish - Castles Built on Sand Wed, 29 Mar 2006 22:53:46 +0000 http://www.jawfish.net/wp/?p=94#comment-32 [...] The planning process doesn’t seem to be able to deal with the natural disaster problem. Corruption, lack of space, and an urgent need for a tax-base drive unwise urban building. Rural planning is traditionally more lax than urban, for the same reasons, plus a left-over laissez-faire settler’s attitude. In the case of Florida, the whole state building code was famously inept and ignored before Hurricane Andrew caused a re-examination. Nationally, the ex-urban movement is putting more people with less local knowledge and much higher expectations out in the way of catastrophe. Now, there is discussion about how much of Southern Louisiana to protect behind new, multi-billion dollar levees. (see Jawfish on the cultural aspects of Katrina. ) [...] [...] The planning process doesn’t seem to be able to deal with the natural disaster problem. Corruption, lack of space, and an urgent need for a tax-base drive unwise urban building. Rural planning is traditionally more lax than urban, for the same reasons, plus a left-over laissez-faire settler’s attitude. In the case of Florida, the whole state building code was famously inept and ignored before Hurricane Andrew caused a re-examination. Nationally, the ex-urban movement is putting more people with less local knowledge and much higher expectations out in the way of catastrophe. Now, there is discussion about how much of Southern Louisiana to protect behind new, multi-billion dollar levees. (see Jawfish on the cultural aspects of Katrina. ) [...]

]]> By: john http://www.jawfish.net/wp/archives/94/comment-page-1#comment-31 john Tue, 14 Feb 2006 00:47:05 +0000 http://www.jawfish.net/wp/?p=94#comment-31 Hey Anna, Its pretty bad to lose your house and it's a tragedy to lose your loved ones. I am truly sorry for you if either have touched you. As a matter of policy and planning, what's done is done however. Now somebody has to decide what to do about it and who will pay. If you folks in Louisiana would like to tell the feds to shove off, be my guest. We'd like to do so here in California. It's a little different for some of us: we want to get rid of oil altogether. The first piece you cite is about Louisiana gaining control of offshore revenues. It sounds reasonable to me, but it's a local issue. The legal pdf seems to be a civil suit. I am sure there will be many filed, and many of those would impress me favorably were I on a jury. The stressbuster site you list has some nice pictures of high-tech flood control. Scientific American has a two much more thorough pieces on the engineering and costs of both Euro-style flood gates and the proposed cross-Louisiana levee system now being discussed. They came to me after this Jawfish piece was written. <a href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000E6686-677C-134D-A77C83414B7F0000&ref=sciam&chanID=sa006" rel="nofollow">Scientific American: Protecting against the Next Katrina [ FLOOD CONTROL ]</a><br />Wetlands mitigate flooding, but are they too damaged in the gulf? And an even longer article: <a href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=0004B83F-4437-13CD-843783414B7F0101&ref=sciam&chanID=sa006" rel="nofollow">Scientific American: Protecting New Orleans [ ENGINEERING ]</a><br />Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast. The storm season starts again this June--and every June. Can coastal communities ever be safeguarded? You bring up the examples of Venice and the Netherlands. I am not familiar with Japanese efforts. Venice is an international treasure, far smaller than southern Louisiana, and surely not comparable to a neighborhood in New Orleans. The Italian governments have been reneging for decades on plans to save it, though work finally seem to be moving forward. In the Netherlands the country itself is at risk, so while the scale of work is large, the national stakes are far higher. Lastly, we Californians have a little natural disaster of our own looming, the so-called Big One. A giant earthquake inside an urban area would produce chaos on the order of Katrina, with roads and communication knocked out for miles. A couple of million people could be affected. It's pretty clear we shouldn't expect much help isn't it? John Hey Anna,

Its pretty bad to lose your house and it’s a tragedy to lose your loved ones. I am truly sorry for you if either have touched you.

As a matter of policy and planning, what’s done is done however. Now somebody has to decide what to do about it and who will pay. If you folks in Louisiana would like to tell the feds to shove off, be my guest. We’d like to do so here in California. It’s a little different for some of us: we want to get rid of oil altogether.

The first piece you cite is about Louisiana gaining control of offshore revenues. It sounds reasonable to me, but it’s a local issue.

The legal pdf seems to be a civil suit. I am sure there will be many filed, and many of those would impress me favorably were I on a jury.

The stressbuster site you list has some nice pictures of high-tech flood control.

Scientific American has a two much more thorough pieces on the engineering and costs of both Euro-style flood gates and the proposed cross-Louisiana levee system now being discussed. They came to me after this Jawfish piece was written.
Scientific American: Protecting against the Next Katrina [ FLOOD CONTROL ]
Wetlands mitigate flooding, but are they too damaged in the gulf?

And an even longer article:
Scientific American: Protecting New Orleans [ ENGINEERING ]
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast. The storm season starts again this June–and every June. Can coastal communities ever be safeguarded?

You bring up the examples of Venice and the Netherlands. I am not familiar with Japanese efforts. Venice is an international treasure, far smaller than southern Louisiana, and surely not comparable to a neighborhood in New Orleans. The Italian governments have been reneging for decades on plans to save it, though work finally seem to be moving forward. In the Netherlands the country itself is at risk, so while the scale of work is large, the national stakes are far higher.

Lastly, we Californians have a little natural disaster of our own looming, the so-called Big One. A giant earthquake inside an urban area would produce chaos on the order of Katrina, with roads and communication knocked out for miles. A couple of million people could be affected. It’s pretty clear we shouldn’t expect much help isn’t it?
John

]]> By: anna yeats http://www.jawfish.net/wp/archives/94/comment-page-1#comment-30 anna yeats Mon, 13 Feb 2006 22:54:20 +0000 http://www.jawfish.net/wp/?p=94#comment-30 dear john and scott and any other self-appointed, ill-informed backseat judges of what should happen next in new orleans, if you're serious about trying to help us i beg of you to first try to imagine that the worst of it all happening to you and yours. every horrible loss and death and indignity. before you work yourselves up to a heavy philosophical sigh about all the stupid power plays, corruption, incompetence, dereliction, nature, foolishness and futility you better realize that you only add to that if you can't identify the people who got hurt. fyi: on what the US surely owes the people of Louisiana and New Orleans: http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/editorials/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1139124215210420.xml http://www.hurricanelawblog.com/archives/HURRICANE%20LAW%20BLOG%20CASE%20Greer.pdf on varying levee investments: http://www.stressbuster1.com/pics/levees.html Note that Venice and Holland and Japan have not let people die or excuse their being abandoned because historic community situations are now extremely vulnerable to nature. dear john and scott and any other self-appointed, ill-informed backseat judges of what should happen next in new orleans,

if you’re serious about trying to help us i beg of you to first try to imagine that the worst of it all happening to you and yours. every horrible loss and death and indignity. before you work yourselves up to a heavy philosophical sigh about all the stupid power plays, corruption, incompetence, dereliction, nature, foolishness and futility you better realize that you only add to that if you can’t identify the people who got hurt.

fyi:
on what the US surely owes the people of Louisiana and New Orleans:
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/editorials/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1139124215210420.xml

http://www.hurricanelawblog.com/archives/HURRICANE%20LAW%20BLOG%20CASE%20Greer.pdf

on varying levee investments:
http://www.stressbuster1.com/pics/levees.html

Note that Venice and Holland and Japan have not let people die or excuse their being abandoned because historic community situations are now extremely vulnerable to nature.

]]> By: Scott Hughes http://www.jawfish.net/wp/archives/94/comment-page-1#comment-29 Scott Hughes Thu, 19 Jan 2006 19:12:21 +0000 http://www.jawfish.net/wp/?p=94#comment-29 They will not be able to rebuild the levees at N.O. with 100 percent guaranteed safety from another Katrina. Everyone will want 100 percent, so it's a politician's nightmare. It's way too expensive to keep low ground dry when Mother Nature has much more power. It's also likely that the Mississippi will change its course, as it does on a regular basis, and leave N.O. behind. Ironically, we humans are feeding the storms (as you noted), causing them to be larger and more frequent due to the global warming effect. Try this simple exercise: Assume that the Gulf has warmed ONE DEGREE Centigrade. Now roughly calculate the volume without looking at a map (I guessed a million cubic kilometers). Next, figure the volume in cubic centimeters and translate that into one calorie per cc per degree centigrade increase in available heat that is excess. Hmmmm, I roughly calculate around 10E21 calories. How much of this energy can a hurricane release? Scott They will not be able to rebuild the levees at N.O. with 100 percent guaranteed safety from another Katrina. Everyone will want 100 percent, so it’s a politician’s nightmare. It’s way too expensive to keep low ground dry when Mother Nature has much more power. It’s also likely that the Mississippi will change its course, as it does on a regular basis, and leave N.O. behind.

Ironically, we humans are feeding the storms (as you noted), causing them to be larger and more frequent due to the global warming effect. Try this simple exercise: Assume that the Gulf has warmed ONE DEGREE Centigrade. Now roughly calculate the volume without looking at a map (I guessed a million cubic kilometers). Next, figure the volume in cubic centimeters and translate that into one calorie per cc per degree
centigrade increase in available heat that is excess. Hmmmm, I roughly calculate around 10E21 calories. How much of this energy can a hurricane release?

Scott

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