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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. <BR>
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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.<BR>
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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. <BR>
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.<BR>
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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 disasters 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?<BR>
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The first link below is about the Yellowstone supervolcano, the rest focus on the dikes in the Netherlands. <BR>
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<A HREF="http://www.earthmountainview.com/yellowstone/yellowstone_press_release.htm">http://www.earthmountainview.com/yellowstone/yellowstone_press_release.htm</A><BR>
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<A HREF="http://www.student.uib.no/~stud1713/HAZARD10.html">http://www.student.uib.no/~stud1713/HAZARD10.html</A><BR>
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<A HREF="http://www.cruise.com/LE5/Default/LocationID_9692/index.html">http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:P90uMLxZaqEJ:www.eccenet.org/Activities/Environ/ENVEasternscheldt.pdf+amsterdam+dikes+stronger+storm+surge&hl=en
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<A HREF="http://www.confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=6099">http://www.confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=6099</A><BR>
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Vision2020 Post by Ted Moffett<BR>
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