See Below >Good info. > >My next question is this: >
Almost all of the recovery effort has been to restore the business environs there. Most of the residents lived north of the massive flooding. >How damaged are the petroleum refineries? >From what I understand, in that parish, all took damage that would keep them >shut down for another 5 months. However, most are partially back in >production. >How damaged were the ports? Most are back in some sort of production. Most were successfully evacuated before the storm and the larger craft were able to ride out the storm from what I am told. >How damaged are the farms? The citrus farms were massively damaged. However, the groves can and are being replaced. The ancilliary buildings took damage but can be repaired. The equipment has to be repaired, but the farms can be worked manually. >How damaged are the homes and farmhouses? South of a certain line, 100% destroyed. However, many have been repaired or replaced in the past 7 months. >How damaged are the ancillary businesses? The buildings themselves were damaged, but temporary buildings are in place. The greatest loss was the infrastructure. > >Were they damaged by the hurricane, by the storm surge, or by the >flooding from overtopped levees? > You describe three types of damage, but there are only 2. The stormn surge overtopped the levee and flooded the area. The hurricane had some wind damage, but the flooding was most dammaging. >These are three completely different problems, with three completely >different solutions. > >As an aside, how will a levee protect the ports? They are, by >definition, at sea level. > They are inside flood protection and also include heliports. There is a series of locks and flood gates protecting most of the parish. These are left open under normal circumstances and closed x number of hours before hurricane conditions hit. >With no levees in place, how often will the areas be flooded? (Days >per year, damage to existing structures). Without the levees, parts would be flooded all of the time. The levees are the most cost effective means of preserving the needed infrastructure. > >I am suggesting that there may be better, sustainable solutions for >these issues. What would be the damage from another flood? What can we >do to mitigate that damage (build differently? protect individual >buildings with levees? > Would you be willing to accept these "solutions" if applied to your home. Be honest and apply emotion. An emotionless look at this is useless since logic has nothing to do with these decisions. >As for recreating the delta, we don't need to remove the levees on the >entire Mississippi. I have read plans for recreating the conditions of >a flood in the last few miles (introducing man-made silt just below >New Orleans) This would be a long-term, sustainable, affordable >solution to rebuild the barrier islands. The delta does not need to be rebuilt. The wetlands need to be rebuilt. The wetlands extend, in the New Orleans area, from the Pontchatrain Escarpment (just north of Lake Pontchartrain) to the Gulf. There are hundreds of thousands of acres that have been lost to subsidence and erosion in the past decade. Every mile of wetlands reduces a storm surge by 1 foot. Placquemines Parish was protected by 20 to 30 miles of wetlands in 1965. Now there are fewer than 5 miles. Any restoration project will require at least 30 billion dollars to start and 3 to 6 billion dollars annually to sustain for at least 20 years. > >As for the "feelings" of the residents, how much money should we sink >into anissue before rethinking? At what point does the federal >government start making intelligent decisions with my money, and stop >throwing good money after bad? There is just not enough money to do >everything the country needs to do. Should this money come out of >veterens benefits? From money to rebuild New Orleans? From government >payoffs to Halliburton? It may be the right thing to do, but don't we >need to think it through, first? Give Louisiana a fair share of the offshore oil revenues and we can finance this ourselves and not need federal dollars. However, I am of the opinion that the entire budget of the Army Corpse of Engineers should be spent restoring 100 year storm protection to all of southeast Louisiana and the rest of the country can rot for ACOE projects until that is done. They created the problem, so they need to fix it. > >My question still stands. > >Is rebuilding the levees in Placquemines the best idea? Unless you want to pay 5 to 6 dollars a gallon for gas, yes. > > >On 4/10/06, Russel Madere <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:203507 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
