Re: Hurricane Katrina

On Tue, 30 Aug 2005 20:48:58 +0100, Peter Duncanson wrote:
>
> Several factors ? most human-made ? have contributed to the steady
> decline of the delta at the bottom of the Mississippi. But most of the
> erosion is blamed on the levees, which faithfully steer all the water
> from the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico. That prevents occasional
> flooding, keeping area residents above water most of the time. But one
> unforeseen consequence of the levees has been to cut off wetlands from
> their life force.
>
> The regular floods served nature's purpose by feeding the delta,
> bringing fresh water and sediment that served to sustain life and
> replenish the wetlands. Without the regular flooding, the wetlands
> naturally ?compact.?
>
> ?Simply put, when the land does not have any nutrients and fresh water
> it dies,? Marmillion said.
>
> Fixing the problem will be costly and time consuming.
> ...
></quote>


[ Fixing the problem will be costly and time consuming. ]
Visions of civil (and uncivil) servents dozing away the years before
retirement, occasional trips out to the Delta to relive the tedium

Actually, most of the above, AFAIK, is true, and even parts of the
city have sunk below sea level. Against that, for hundreds of years
people have buried their dead in sepulchers above ground because of
the constant flooding. Its nothing new. Maybe the British were lucky
not to have captured the city in 181* (Yes, I know, the war had been
over for quite a while). From what I hear on TV, the problem is that
people took advantage of a few calm years to build where they
shouldn't. Same thing happened in Dublin some time ago, squeals of
anger from the cuckoos about global warming, old people just wondered
why houses were built on what was always a flood plain along the
Tolka.


--
greymaus


.

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