Originally posted by Traveler
But following Holland’s example is exactly what we should do with New Orleans. Holland gave up the idea of holding back the water long ago. They let nature take it’s course and large areas were allowed to flood, Cities were moved or relocated and a minimal dike and levy system was put in place. They still build homes in flood planes however, the homes that are built in these areas must float.
Spending billions and trillions of dollars on a levy system in New Orleans that will take decades to be in a position to withstand a category 5 just makes no sense. New Orleans will be hit again by a category 5 hurricane within the next 10 years. That’s a given as hurricane’s become more numerous do to climatic changes that everyone agrees is taking place.
Why encourage people to repopulate an area that is going to be hit again and will suffer just as bad, I doubt that our fat bloated Federal Government will improve in it’s ability to respond in the next 10 years. Americans are to busy being distracted to change it’s leaders. We re-elect the same type of people at each election.
We may see a change in our government leaders if al Qaeda is able to make good on it’s promise to commit another terrorist attack in the United States. Something that kills tens of thousands rather then just thousands of people. I’m sure that then leadership will change.
Excellent post.
In addition to the Holland example, let's look at San Francisco. Again, in 1906 after the Earthquake demolished the city, it needed to be rebuilt. For the first 3-4 months they had follow "code" to make the structures "tolerant of earthquakes". Only "non-combustible" materials were to be used for framework. After the 3-4 months, the City and politicians "were upset with how long it was taking to rebuild".
So, the contractors were therefore going back to building "all wood structures".
Take the infamous Valencia Street Hotel collapse in the Quake of 1906. In the 1800's a lake was filled in, and this hotel was built on top of a part of that lake. When the quake hit the ground underneath the hotel experienced "liquefaction". The lake being earlier filled in with rubble, sand and rocks mixed with the water and the building collapsed. The first 3 floors had 200 trapped underground. The problem is that when the Quake occurred, the underground water system had a lot of breaks. As a result those 200 victims drowned.
You'd think they would have learned from this, but they didn't. Let's turn our attention to the Marina District. After the fires had demolished 70% of the city. It was time to rebuild. All of the rubble and debris from the "cleanup" was dumped at the water's edge, and they built the Marina District on top. Even bodies are buried there to this day. They built upon "filled in" ground. Jump to the 1989 and where was the majority of the damage? The Marina District. Not only did the ground undergo "liquefcation", the buildings that burned or collapsed, were the very same buildings that "were built after the "codes" were abolished during the rebuilding in 1906.
Why is this similar to NO? 100+ years of experience is staring people dead in the eye, and they'd rather have it happen again.
