Interesting New Orleans info I discovered last night...

I couldn't get over the "10 feet below sea level" thing. I kept thinking "why the FUCK would you build a city like that?"

I found the answer.

It wasn't like that when they built the city.

The foundations of the city were built on the silt and such that flowed down the mississippi. As the edges of the river have been walled off by population, less material has flowed downstream. Cap this off with the walling off of the lake and rivers there... New Orleans has been sinking a fraction of an inch each year.

It was not a matter of "IF"... It was a matter of "WHEN".

The levee walls were designed to hold a category 3 hurricane... not 4... and one particular disaster video that someone mentioned, ended with potential disasters and wrapped with "If a hurricane of signifigant force ever hits New Orleans....." [img]confused.gif[/img]

It's just sad.

<font color="#cd6600" size="1">[ September 01, 2005 10:53 AM: Message edited by: Axis Bold as B?im?n ]</font>

you just found this out? I'm supposed to be the bubble boy around here [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

And to think Kartina was a category 5

when the storm first started the high waves where bashing OVER the walls and washin out the land from the back side. therefore the walls would not be stable with the land washed out from behing and was expected to crumble when the full force hit. They said they never counted on the land being washed out from behind before the storm really got going.

I think its time to reshape the US and just plow LA off. Seriously, not to be mean, but almost everything is gone for those folks. Help them to start over somewhere safer. I know not practical, but will it happen again?

Jor... while I'm usually filling my head with useless information, I had never paid any attention to the foundation of New Orleans.

I knew it had a lake and river... with levees... but usually that's to prevent flooding if the river or lakes rise.

When I found out how far BELOW the water level was, I was just stunned. How the hell did any insurance company insure ANY structure in that city????

"Yeah... I'm gonna build a house on this ice shelf... I hope to have the house completed by February. What's that? July? It gets how warm?"

Chaser... I said the same thing.

Going back and rebuilding inside the hole is pretty dumb.

Make new shores, make a floating city like Venice... but forget about draining the hole out.

"New Orleans is sinking man, and I don't wanna swim..."
- The Tragically Hip

it only makes sense to omit it from the states. there is so much damage I dont see how they can level it all out, remove the debris, WHERE DOES ALL THAT GO?, house all the people temporaraly and rebuild. now that this has happened, wont it have damaged the land to make it even farther below sea level? I cant fathom how theyre going to do all this. we'll probably be dead before its all done

This is just a dress rehearsal for when half of California falls into the sea.

Remember what I said about the planet Earth being able to take care of herself? We won't kill the planet, she will kill us first. [img]wink.gif[/img]

yeah its wiping things away. after this, I wouldnt be shooked if something like it happened to California.

makes you think of the song by Tool

Humans don't learns too quick. They's gonna build again when it all dries out.

I think people have been expecting something like this for a long time. Like you said, it was just a matter of when it was gonna happen.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Andyman:
This is just a dress rehearsal for when half of California falls into the sea.

Remember what I said about the planet Earth being able to take care of herself? We won't kill the planet, she will kill us first. [img]wink.gif[/img]

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Amen brother Andy.

this is all so freaky. hell this could cause major disease and wipe out even more people

Quote:

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Originally posted by Andyman:
This is just a dress rehearsal for when half of California falls into the sea.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I've already got the emergency bikini response team set up.... do you think 50 gallons of cocoa-butter tanning oil is enough?

guess our maps will look pretty different when california goes too. sooner or later I might get my wish and get to live by ocean!

It's a terrible shame. I spent a week there and the hospitality was wonderful. Lots of great stuff to see and just unbelievable food.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Chaserfan half man half machine:
I think its time to reshape the US and just plow LA off. Seriously, not to be mean, but almost everything is gone for those folks. Help them to start over somewhere safer. I know not practical, but will it happen again?

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">How about just the New Orleans area and not the whole state, lol? I wouldn't have anywhere to call home if the whole state was plowed away.

My guess is that eventually the powers-that-be will decide to just fence off or wall up what used to be New Orleans. Whether they decide to rebuild or not, nothing will be able to be done until all the people are out.

it'll have to be the whole state because you have to have room to put all the trash and debris!

Quote:

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Originally posted by Chaserfan half man half machine:
it'll have to be the whole state because you have to have room to put all the trash and debris!

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">What do you think they've been using the Gulf for all these years? [img]wink.gif[/img]

yikes!

You want to hear a scary thought? Think about the situation in Iraq. When order breaks down, chaos rules. We're not so different after all.

nope, not really

It's the same story for the Netherlands...

All you can do is shake your head. Some of the building and re-building ideas that have been done in regards to natural disaters, that have, or could happen, are bafflingly moronic. I live outside a city that (like the rest of the state) has ground movement and sometimes really harsh shaking. So what do they do? Build a feckin' subway here to help with the horridly (read "corruption and the Red Line") planned public transportation system. After who knows how many sinkholes, delays due to said sinkholes, and other building issues, it's now built. And most people with the sense that God gave a baboon wouldn't ride the thing. Going to work and having
part of the city drop on your head is not exactly an appealing thought. Having studied geology in college and just as a hobby, I could write a book on the utter stupidity of some of the descisions that have been made here in L.A. in the name of the almighty dollar. [img]frown.gif[/img] So when I hear that they're going to refill the hole in New Orleans, all I can think of is when they used the debris from the 1906 San Francisco quake (IOW "bayfill")
to rebuild that place. Of course that area was the hardest hit in '89. [img]confused.gif[/img]