[Vision2020] Netherland's Approach Better Than New Orleans

[Tbertruss at aol.com]

All:

Those who are saying the Hurricane Katrina disaster would have been this bad 
with thousands killed no matter what improvements were made to the New Orleans 
levy system perhaps should study the system the Netherlands has in place.  

It has been known for decades that the New Orleans levy system needed 
improvements and modernization.  FEMA's own study of this situation revealed this 
disaster could happen with a hurricane of Katrina's power.  It is clear that 
funding could have been made available to improve the New Orleans levy system to 
achieve greater safeguards against the catastrophic flooding we see now.  This 
lack of commitment to this problem goes back before the Bush administration, 
though his administration continued the neglect.

This neglect of the infrastructure that could have lessened the impact of 
this disaster in waiting was deliberate ... with fingers crossed!  Just because 
eventually the Mississippi River will reclaim New Orleans is no excuse for not 
keeping millions of people safe.  
The approach should have been to make New Orleans as safe as practically 
possible, given the fact the city was not going to be abandoned because of its 
tenuous location.

Seattle is waiting for the big one (earthquake), and we could maybe get hit 
when the Yellowstone supervolcano (no joke!) blows, so nature presents future d
isasters of many kinds that should be planned for, if possible.  Is Seattle 
going to be abandoned because of earthquake threats, or are we going to abandon 
Moscow because of the Yellowstone supervolcano threat?

The first link below is about the Yellowstone supervolcano, the rest focus on 
the dikes in the Netherlands.  

http://www.earthmountainview.com/yellowstone/yellowstone_press_release.htm

http://www.student.uib.no/~stud1713/HAZARD10.html


http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:P90uMLxZaqEJ:www.eccenet.org/Activities/Environ/ENVEasternscheldt.pdf+amsterdam+dikes+stronger+storm+surge&hl=en

http://www.confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=6099
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Vision2020 Post by Ted Moffett
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