New Orleans???????

[jonnythan]

Why should taxpayers be held responsable for people that build on the coast, flood plains, hill sides or other places that WILL fail? And yes, taxpayers are the ones paying for your subsidised insurance.

How about we throw everyone out of Miami and Los Angeles because a natural disaster could wipe out their towns??

Brilliant!

 

[archman]

I believe people should, in most cases, make their own decisions on what risks they accept. I do take exception to the taxpayers repeatedly paying to rebuild houses in the same flood zone

Yes, this is the major difficulty. If one builds in a coastal area, they should read the Corps of Engineering reports, and assume financial and personal responsibility for natural disaster events having a fair probability of occurring in the near future. Unfortunately land is often very cheap in high risk areas, and many individuals who build/reside in such areas cannot afford proper protective measures and/or disaster insurance. This is what appears to have taken place in major portions of New Orleans. It's just like trailer parks in tornado corridors, or riverfront condos... albeit on a much larger scale. I doubt anyone with reasonable forethought ever believed New Orleans NOT to eventually get trashed by a big hurricane. Heck, there was a government emergency response exercise held last year that modeled guess what? A major hurricane held in... New Orleans. Now THAT'S irony.

When I went to school in Galveston, I took sharp notice that many of the engineering and marine science faculty lived off-island, or they resided in the elevated portions near the seawall. The fellow that taught the coastal hydrography class commuted from 10 miles inland, and his home was still on stilts. Big, heavy stilts at that.

I am torn between pity and exasperation that so many people chose not to leave New Orleans following a mandatory evacuation order. Pity for the folks that had nowhere else to go or were unable to get proper warning; nothing but irritation for everyone else. Our university's taking 350 refugees into one of our sports arenas, and admitting 1,000 displaced college students. 10 of our buses are out helping transport people to aid centers this weekend. Texas Task Force 1 mobilized days ago. This is a great deal of effort just in our own community, and I will pay close attention to the overall cost required by the nation to deal with this. Rebuilding New Orleans will be a hot political issue for years to come, and will spinoff a great many related topics.

At least the military is keeping busy. If they're not all off fighting or peacekeeping, they're doing disaster relief. There's a whole bleeding armada heading into the Gulf.

 

[Wildcard]

Ummm, how does one relate to the other? A city that regulary floods due to parts of it beingh below sea level vs any other city that "might" someday get hit with a disaster?

 

[scubajoe]

I may be wrong but it seems like 70% of the population of the US lives within 100 miles of the ocean. Didn't Katrina do severe damage more then 100 miles inland?

Joe

 

[jonnythan]

Ummm, how does one relate to the other? A city that regulary floods due to parts of it beingh below sea level vs any other city that "might" someday get hit with a disaster?

New Orleans does not flood any more often than, say, St Louis.

The last decent flood was more than 10 years ago.

 

[archman]

Miami and Los Angeles are also high risk building areas, but neither faces the same difficulties New Orleans has. They're not "unnaturally constructed" with major portions below sea level. Cleanup efforts can begin almost immediately following the disaster event.

New Orleans had pretty decent (albeit extraordinarily expensive) flooding safeguards in place, designed to handle moderate-strength hurricanes. It's these existing measures that have kept much of the place around the last 50+ years. But when those measures are severely compromised (major levee breaks), you're in for a world of hurt. The levees have to be rebuilt and the water pumped back out before cleanup can get started. It's an additional step that adds complication, time, and expense to an already bad situation. It's a major reason why people are still trapped, and looting is rampant. Aid has the devil of a time getting in there.

I particulary enjoy the news commentators and politicians that are negatively ranking the rescue efforts in New Orleans to those of the Pacific tsunami last year. It seems that the facts and timelines for that disaster are conveniently forgotten.

 

[jonnythan]

The news is too important to be trusted to newscasters

 

[archman]

I may be wrong but it seems like 70% of the population of the US lives within 100 miles of the ocean. Didn't Katrina do severe damage more then 100 miles inland?

Yes, but it's "typical" hurricane damage. Primarily wind and temporary flooding. Folks can return to their affected areas pretty soon afterwards. In many places they already have, and are starting cleanup operations. Buildings that weren't flooded and were constructed to withstand high winds likely suffered minimal damage, and could be reoccupied (minus power and water, maybe). Many such buildings are now built in hurricane-prone regions. As long as they're not flooded out, they'll fare just fine. We have an enormous pyramid-shaped greenhouse in Galveston designed to withstand a category 4.

Areas like this still take a long time to rebuild and cost a ton of money, however. Major regions are still rebuilding from last year's hurricane season.

 

[H2Andy]

In the case of a catastrophic eruption that blew the entire caldera plug it would probably destroy the entire island of Kyushu.......but there are also many people who think that all of Japan could just disappear into the Japanese Trench one day.

so basically you're saying you'd rather live in the caldera of an active volcano
any day rather than in New Orelans?

(just trying to figure yout what it is you are saying)

i figured if a volcano goes, that's it...

but in a flood area, your house may get damaged and flooded, but you
could probably come back and not have to start from scratch

 

[jonnythan]

And you have the chance to get out of the way of an oncoming hurricane... when a volcano blows, you just die.