And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
It's not JUST that The Mississippi drains about half the country. It's that New Orleans is 8 FEET BELOW SEA LEVEL and sinking at the rate of .25" per year, with some sections sinking at 3 times that rate.
That's what happens when you build on a river delta that is made of river sediment.
The place should have been written off as a bad idea the first time it flooded 1719. It definitely should have been written off after the Katrina flood in 2005. But no.
Let's just keep throwing good money down a bad well that the bottom is dropping out of with no end in sight. Oh, the humanity.
It's even worse than that. By law, the Corps of Engineers must keep the Mississippi River flowing through New Orleans. Something the river hasn't wanted to do since the 1950s and has cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
Nemo, you and Anon@8:25 are both right, but there's another piece illustrating just how doomed New Orleans is.
Upstream from Baton Rouge, the Mississippi comes very near to the Atchafalya River. https://maps.app.goo.gl/z76bWuVqQQNNNCum7
As you note, the Mississippi is silting up and requires dredging to keep it passable. But the Atchafalya is digging it's channel deeper. Mother Earth is telling us that the Atchafalya is meant to capture the Mississippi. But allowing that would mean that the new mouth of the Mississippi would move 60-ish miles west and everything downstream of that capture...including New Orleans...would literally sink into the swamp. The Old River Control Structure... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_River_Control_Structure ....keeps that from happening....for now.
Mark Twain writes about what a wild river it was (long before the Corps of Engineers "tamed" it with lock and dams) in his book Life on the Mississippi.
You could be living in Tennessee, then suddenly the main channel would change and you would be living in Arkansas. I believe someone was quoted as saying: "Damn, I don't want to live in Arkansas". (!)
John McPhee wrote a book entitled "The Control Of Nature" (I believe) in the late '70s. One of its three parts was about the Old River Control Structure. The Corps drilled 30' deep into a levee and dropped a fiber optic camera into what appeared to be a cavity. It was.
Saw 80 lb. catfish swimming. Pumped somethning like 10 million pounds of bentonite/portland cement to stabilize the whole levee system. Still do to this day.
If the levee system fails, the Mississippi flows into the Atchafalaya River. Well, all the refineries and chemical plants in Red Stick are out of business. Depresxsion ensues, no diesel for the deep south and the Midwest farm belt.
They built a city below sea level, and then transferred responsibility for the design and operation of the levees and pumps to a 3rd party who doesn’t live there.
I was watching something about Katrina as they were describing the various ways the city dealt with it's pre-existing drainage situation. I remember being horrified when they got to the part describing how there were several large pumping stations that sent low-lying water out of the city toward Lake Pontchartrain but the storm surge on the Lake overwhelmed them and instead started dumping water BACK into the city.
Welllll, being that i was born and raised here i speak with a little authority The great flood that was Katrina was caused by the levee system that blocks lake Pontchartrain failed the day after the storm passed. The 9th ward flood happened the day of the storm from the intercoastal levee system failure. Although the intercoastal connects to the river , there is a lock between the two. After the surge went away the water equalized and plugging the levees and drying the city began. If the river levee fails, possibly from a ship or just failure from pressure during the spring, the breach will continue to open for miles. At that point Katrina will look like a literal drop of water in comparison
being at or below sea-level does not help...
ReplyDeleteIt's not JUST that The Mississippi drains about half the country. It's that New Orleans is 8 FEET BELOW SEA LEVEL and sinking at the rate of .25" per year, with some sections sinking at 3 times that rate.
ReplyDeleteThat's what happens when you build on a river delta that is made of river sediment.
The place should have been written off as a bad idea the first time it flooded 1719. It definitely should have been written off after the Katrina flood in 2005. But no.
Let's just keep throwing good money down a bad well that the bottom is dropping out of with no end in sight. Oh, the humanity.
This is stupid politics at its highest level.
Nemo
It's even worse than that.
DeleteBy law, the Corps of Engineers must keep the Mississippi River flowing through New Orleans. Something the river hasn't wanted to do since the 1950s and has cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
Nemo, you and Anon@8:25 are both right, but there's another piece illustrating just how doomed New Orleans is.
DeleteUpstream from Baton Rouge, the Mississippi comes very near to the Atchafalya River.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/z76bWuVqQQNNNCum7
As you note, the Mississippi is silting up and requires dredging to keep it passable. But the Atchafalya is digging it's channel deeper. Mother Earth is telling us that the Atchafalya is meant to capture the Mississippi. But allowing that would mean that the new mouth of the Mississippi would move 60-ish miles west and everything downstream of that capture...including New Orleans...would literally sink into the swamp. The Old River Control Structure...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_River_Control_Structure
....keeps that from happening....for now.
azlibertarian
Mark Twain writes about what a wild river it was (long before the Corps of Engineers "tamed" it with lock and dams) in his book Life on the Mississippi.
DeleteYou could be living in Tennessee, then suddenly the main channel would change and you would be living in Arkansas. I believe someone was quoted as saying: "Damn, I don't want to live in Arkansas". (!)
...because of all the Republicans living in those areas??
ReplyDelete
DeleteDanny boy seems to be displaying his TDS mental condition. So sad.
Just damn glad you're living elsewhere Dan!
DeleteBubbarust
It needs to flood every few years to clean out the garage, damn what a filthy place.
ReplyDeleteShoot. I never thought about that being a way to clean my own garage. Might try it.
DeleteGreat book called "Rising Tide".....................
ReplyDeleteThe main reason that city floods is that it was built below sea level.
ReplyDeleteJohn McPhee wrote a book entitled "The Control Of Nature" (I believe) in the late '70s. One of its three parts was about the Old River Control Structure. The Corps drilled 30' deep into a levee and dropped a fiber optic camera into what appeared to be a cavity. It was.
ReplyDeleteSaw 80 lb. catfish swimming. Pumped somethning like 10 million pounds of bentonite/portland cement to stabilize the whole levee system. Still do to this day.
If the levee system fails, the Mississippi flows into the Atchafalaya River. Well, all the refineries and chemical plants in Red Stick are out of business. Depresxsion ensues, no diesel for the deep south and the Midwest farm belt.
They built a city below sea level, and then transferred responsibility for the design and operation of the levees and pumps to a 3rd party who doesn’t live there.
ReplyDeleteI was watching something about Katrina as they were describing the various ways the city dealt with it's pre-existing drainage situation. I remember being horrified when they got to the part describing how there were several large pumping stations that sent low-lying water out of the city toward Lake Pontchartrain but the storm surge on the Lake overwhelmed them and instead started dumping water BACK into the city.
ReplyDeleteFAFO
DeleteNot only is much of New Orleans below sea level, it is surrounded on three sides by water - the Gulf, the Mississippi River, and Lake Pontchartrain.
ReplyDeleteBut Nuorluns. “ this city will be chocolate at the end of the day"”
ReplyDeleteWelllll, being that i was born and raised here i speak with a little authority
ReplyDeleteThe great flood that was Katrina was caused by the levee system that blocks lake Pontchartrain failed the day after the storm passed. The 9th ward flood happened the day of the storm from the intercoastal levee system failure. Although the intercoastal connects to the river , there is a lock between the two. After the surge went away the water equalized and plugging the levees and drying the city began.
If the river levee fails, possibly from a ship or just failure from pressure during the spring, the breach will continue to open for miles. At that point Katrina will look like a literal drop of water in comparison
Correction, I said intercoastal, it is actually the Industrial canal at the 9th ward
DeleteWiki the great louisiana flood of 1927. Then think about the population change in 100 years.
Delete