Interesting Katrina Post

[eric1037]

I am involved with another forum that is primarily interested in promoting conservative politics. There is a thread posted there that provides a very detailed analysis of the levee breaks. I am not sure of the qualifications of the person that has produced it, but it does have some very detailed analysis with a large number of detailed photos that I have not seen in the mainstream media. It also provides links to pertinant data and news reports.

I wouldn't normally link to this site because I understand that not everyone shares the same views when it comes to politics. However, I think that this report is something that would interest people on this forum.

I will warn you that there is a very conservative agenda on the site and they don't tolerate flippant opposing views. There may also be posts on there that may offend if you are of a more liberal mindset. However, if you can get past that, I think you would find this post very interesting. You can take it for what it is worth.

I will say that my views don't necessarily mesh entirely with the views expressed on the site. I don't want this forum to turn into a political debate site. There are other forums for that purpose. I know that isn't what we're about here. I just want to link to something interesting that I haven't seen.

That's enough qualifiers I guess. The link is below.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1517817/posts

 

[Mccoy]

eric1037,
the info provided is just overwhelming!

Unfortunately, the New Orleans situation is one that, at a smaller scale, and in different contexts (river flooding, landslide risk, volcanic risk) is widespread.
In Italy the slopes of the Vesuvio volcano, near Napoli, an active and very dangerous one, are densely populated, and apparently everybody pretends to forget about Pompei of ancient Romans memory.
In the same region (Campania) some years ago a few villages were destroyed by landslides; it turned out that, historically, it wasn't the first time. They just re-built it in the identical location.
In Colombia, there is a village which has been torn down numerous times by volcanic eruptions, yet people stubbornly build it back at the same location.
Ditto for tsunamis in Indonesia.
This aspect of human nature just amazes me.

 

[dmoler]

My bet on New Orleans, they build back the levies to better standards, but do not strengthen the building code (like here in Florida after Category 5 Andrew) for new structures. Next hurricane, all gone again.

Here in Florida, we have a superstrict building code, since we learned our lesson from previous hurricanes, and now have impact resistant windows, frangible slabs on lower levels near the storm surge areas, non-armored buildings near the coast, mandated pile foundations with load tests, roof requirements including straps and certain bolting, and inspections mandatory for all! More expensive, but worth it.

I dont really think that New Orleans can afford the extra requirements we have since it is a poorer state. That goes into economics though, cost-benefit, not my strong point.

 

[dgillette]

The preliminary COE-ASCE report is available:

http://www.asce.org/asce.cfm

Haven't had time to look at it just yet. There is an exec summary for those without time to read 700 pages.

Regards,
DRG