[Vision2020] What's Needed To Protect New Orleans?

[Tbertruss at aol.com]

All:

The New Orleans Times Picayune ran a five part series in 2002 titled "Washing 
Away" that offered details on the threat of hurricanes and what is required 
for flood protection in the New Orleans area.  Below is a web link to this 
article, with some of the actual structural changes described that are needed in 
the flood protection systems in and around New Orleans pasted in here.  This 
link goes directly to part 5 of the series, but the other parts are accessible 
with one click from this link:

http://www.nola.com/hurricane/index.ssf?/washingaway/costofsurvival_1.html

If hurricanes haven't seriously scarred coastal Louisiana or swept it out to 
sea in the next 50 to 100 years, the very process of protecting the region may 
still end up altering it almost beyond recognition.

Based on current plans and proposals, here are some changes that coming 
generations may see:

* A giant wall, more than 30 feet high in places, cuts through New Orleans 
and across Jefferson Parish to create a "safe haven" should a storm surge from 
Lake Pontchartrain top the levees. The levees themselves are 10 feet or more 
higher than today, and some are crowned with a sea wall, blocking views of the 
lake. A large collapsible wall sits atop some levees, ready to be raised during 
hurricanes.

* At the Rigolets and Chef Menteur passes to the lake, huge floodgates stand 
ready to be closed if waters rise. All across the Mississippi River delta, 
hurricane levees crisscross marshes, surrounding dozens of towns. At key 
junctures on the river, large gated sluices direct fresh river water across stretches 
of marshland, rebuilding it with silt. Dredges have hauled sand from miles 
offshore to sculpt and maintain new barrier islands where only slivers exist 
today.

* From New Orleans to Morgan City, thousands of homes have roofs fortified to 
resist high winds and are equipped with steel storm shutters. Outside the 
levees, most homes have been raised on pilings 15 feet high or more. Main roads 
and highways are at similar heights.

* Some communities have built elevated shelters capable of withstanding 
175-mph winds, similar to those being constructed in Bangladesh today.

* But big storms still threaten even this highly engineered landscape. In 
some places the Gulf of Mexico has maintained its steady progress inland and the 
region is starting to resemble Venice, Italy, the city of canals. Water 
routinely laps at the foot of levees, eroding them. In other areas, levees and walls 
deflect surging floodwaters into new places and to surprising heights. 
Engineers watch as the sea rises and the land sinks and wonder whether their 
ambitious fixes will ultimately amount to nothing.  

It's impossible to make a large city or a broad area like the Mississippi 
River delta completely disaster proof. Nature is too fierce, human structures and 
activities too exposed. But most emergency managers agree that south 
Louisiana could be much safer than it is. That will take creative engineering design 
and new thinking about how to disaster proof communities. It also will take 
plenty of money.

These innovations are collectively more ambitious than any similar 
engineering project anywhere in the world and will change not only the shape of the 
Mississippi River delta but the way people live here. Some will end up behind 
walls. Some on stilts. If programs don't work, many people may ultimately move 
away.

"We have to think big. It's the only thing that will get us anywhere," said 
Len Bahr, the governor's executive assistant for coastal activities.
----------------------------------------------

Vision2020 Post by Ted Moffett
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20050903/e5dd0703/attachment-0001.htm