Re: Department of Homeland Security?

In message <fpdrk1lmif9rrddfnblf14qd8u6iv8qg01@xxxxxxx>, Jasper Janssen
<jasper@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes
>On Sat, 3 Sep 2005 14:45:49 +0100, Robert Sneddon
><nojay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> There is only one way to check if a levee will withstand a Cat 3
>>hurricane and that is to throw a Cat 3 hurricane at it. All the rest is
>>salesweaselling.
>
>Ya know.. that's just not true. Nowadays the effects of a storm of given
>size can be modelled pretty damn well.

Modelling is great. However the models depend on the actual levees
being built the way the model describes them as having been built, with
no shortchanging in the concrete mix and backhanders to the inspectors.
It assumes the levees haven't been undermined by water penetration over
the past five years that hasn't been caught by thorough inspections
because the budget was cut and the man in charge of the maintenance
department is the idiot son of the local Congressman. It depends on a
Cat3 storm not possessing a few gusts of Cat5 intensity as it hits the
target. Etc. Etc.

How you know the levees will in fact survive a Cat3 event is that after
one has hit, the levees are still standing when the wind dies down. The
rest is PowerPoint.
--
My gmail account is nojay1 Robert Sneddon
.

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