I don't want to minimize the human tragedies that New Orleans faces, but at some point the government, insurance companies, and people of New Orleans and Louisiana will face the issue of rebuilding. I have always had trouble with a city that is largely built below sea-level. To protect such a city from a category 5 hurricane appears formidable (at least to me)--will it ever be totally secure and if you spend money on rebuilding such a city, it will drain money from other human needs? How do voters, politicians, and governments make such tough decisions? I know the Dutch have made that decision since the 1950s.
Some of us received an email with a proposal from a retired engineer. I can't speak to its feasibility, but I did like the idea of raising New Orleans if it is to be rebuilt.
". . . If you agree with the thought - maybe you can forward it to the people making the decisions on just how to rebuild New Orleans.
Looking at the age old problem of New Orleans, being below sea level, and now it looks like most of it is destroyed. It occurred to me that there will never be a better time to really fix the problem they have had for so many years. It was never a question of "If" but "When" a Cat 3 or higher hurricane scored a direct hit on their city and caused the problem we are seeing now..
It will cost a lot of money - to solve the problem "Correctly" but we have no assurance that after any less expensive "Solution" is installed - that another hurricane will not come through and do the same thing as Katrina did.
One solution that would solve their problem;
1 - Have the insurance companies pay off all the owners (for those who actually had flood insurance) for the total loss of their buildings.
2 - The Army Corps of Engineers must step up to the plate and state the obvious; No one will be allowed to build anywhere in the current New Orleans area because it is in a flood plane! (I believe this was done a few years ago on the Ohio River where a small town kept being flooded out.)
3 - Bring in the bulldozers and level all the buildings in New Orleans which are below sea level.
4 - Assuming the New Orleans' people will insist on rebuilding in/near their beloved city. Bring in fill* and raise the level of the "Town" to above sea level.
* The obvious question is where do you get enough fill to raise NO elevation to above sea level. Bring in the barge pumps which the gulf beaches have used for years to pump sand from the gulf back onto the beaches. Use them to pump sand/silt/mud from the gulf bottom onto barges which can the towed. Open the gates and let the water fill the city so the barges can be floated into the city area and dumped....
Bill Thrasher Ph.D., PE
billthrasher@lani.net
1 comment:
Aside from building a city below sea level in the first place, it seems that the disaster was exacerbated by our tampering with the land -- damming rivers, cutting canals, draining marshes, etc. I can't imagine how messing it up even more would help. That land was formed by water, and it belongs to water. We just learned that lesson the hard way, and I hope our stubborn, beat-mother-nature-into-submission attitude doesn't cost a future generation the same grief the people of New Orleans are suffering right now.
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