--- In [email protected], "shempmcgurk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > In light of both last year's tsunami and Katrina, the issue has been > brought up in the media that the loss of human life and damages in > BOTH cases could have been greatly minimized had proper preparation > been made. > > It wasn't that experts didn't envision that a tsunami could happen > or that the levees in New Orleans could have broken, it's just the > odds seemed to make it so unlikely that public policy in this area > didn't make spending the millions or billions to prevent what could > have been prevented. > > I contrast this with the building of hydro-electric dams. The > little I know about them is this: a dam is built in order to create > a massive reservoir of water so that the power of the water from > these masses can be channeled into turning turbines which, in turn, > create electricity. > > But the danger inherent in every dam in spillover: too much water in > a reservoir can either destroy the environment or -- as is the case > with Hoover Dam -- destroy the generating facility. > > So with every dam is built a "spillway", a structure in which > spillovers can be safely channelled away from creating a disaster. > At Hoover DAm you can see a massive concrete tunnel beside the > facility built specifically for this purpose. > > I once took a tour of a hydroelectric dam in Northern Quebec at > James Bay. At one point beside the reservoir near a dyke was a > massive set of concrete steps that, I was told, cost hundreds of > millions of dollars to build and, at the top of the stairs built > into the side of the reservoir was a gate that could be opened; a > spillway in other words. > > The tour guide mentioned that, statistically, overspill would happen > only once every 100 years! > > Yet the company spent hundreds of millions of dollars to plan for > something that the builders would, statistically, not even see in > their own lifetime, not ever see the practical benefit of. > > This type of planning happened with private enterprise (note that > Bechtel built the dam, please!) Perhaps there is a disconnect > between this type of planning in private enterprise and public > policy enterprises...
You don't read much on this group. The $250 million that was to be spent last year on strengthening New Orlean's levees was spent on the war in Iraq instead. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
