Water now pouring over the same levees that failed three years ago.

[theweaselking]

Comments

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

Aren't they new?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

No. "Repaired" using substandard materials.

[aelfie.livejournal.com]

Pouring over? Yes...Failing? Not yet.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Not yet.

But the evacuation was deemed to be mandatory, and the evacuation plan could only handle 10% of the population even if they *hadn't* hired Republican party contributors instead of real contractors. And "mandatory evacuation" apparently means "deliberately go out of your way to fuck over anyone who's left behind.

So if they do fail after the storm passes, like they did with Katrina, it's going to be worse.

I really hope they hold.

[itlandm.livejournal.com]

I like the sign in the foreground.

[tsunami-ryuu.livejournal.com]

It's like a Zen koan: figure out what goes on the bottom.

[falconwarrior.livejournal.com]

DO NOT WANT

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

That was my immediate thought upon seeing that picture.

OH INTERWUBS HOW U HAZ CORRUPTED ME.

[mrianti.livejournal.com]

build below seal level , not the smartest move IMO

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

There is inevitably going to be a city at the mouth of the mississippi. You can't *not* put a city there.

[ed-dirt.livejournal.com]

Tell that to 16 million Dutch.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

A Dutch company submitted a proposal to rebuild the NOLA levees using centuries of tried-and-true Dutch technology.

They got shuffled off in favor of letting the same Army Corps of Engineers supervise the same crooked bastard companies who screwed them up the LAST time.

[thormation.livejournal.com]

Since when is the Netherlands in a hurricane zone?

[spartonian.livejournal.com]

It's not, but North Sea lows occasionally pack a wallop themselves with weather similar to that seen in a hurricane.

[corruptedjasper.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_control_in_the_Netherlands#Notorious_floods
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dom_Tower_of_Utrecht#Storm_Damage

I'm just sayin'. No, we don't get them as often or (mostly) as powerfully, but we do get hurricanes, bad storm surges (The North Sea gets higher storm surges for a given size of storm than the Gulf does, AFAIK)(the 1953 event was a spring high tide compbined with a storm surge, and not that unlike Katrina in that there were many-multiple massive dyke failures), and protecting against that stuff is more a matter of degrees and taking numbers into account than it is a problem of sheer technical issues.

Something like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maeslantkering could probably be made to close off even the mighty Mississippi to storm surges, possibly combined with a separate non-navigable channel to handle the outflow.

[elffin.livejournal.com]

Rely on the Army Corps of Engineers, who operate on a budget instead of to engineering standards - not the smartest move.

It should be called the Army Corps of Budget Packing.

[glitteringlynx.livejournal.com]

Wait, what? Again?? :(

BTW, am I the only one who saw the "DO NOT" sign and instantly thought "WANT?"

Then when I realised what the photo WAS, I figured adding WANT to the sign would still have been appropriate.

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

BTW, am I the only one who saw the "DO NOT" sign and instantly thought "WANT?"

Nope.

[atlasimpure.livejournal.com]

You fail at reading.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Hint: The story at the link keeps changing as CNN keeps updating it.

*At the time I linked it*, the storm surge had water going right over the Industrial Canal levees, and there was a serious concern that they were going to collapse again.

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

At the time you linked it, I was watching the water flow over the Industrial Canal levees on the TV.

So yes, there was, and there was.

[atlasimpure.livejournal.com]

Ah, American Media scare tactics and not presumption on your part.

My apologies.

[jirel.livejournal.com]

At least over 50% of the people originally in New Orleans were smart enough and rich enough to leave after Katrina and never come back. According to what I heard on TV that's how much the population of New Orleans is down by. And since there IS a fair amount over sea level (including Bourbon Street) there's hope.