Saturday, September 17, 2005
Friday, September 16, 2005
Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell: "The country does not have one dime more resources available when those resources are channeled through government. The resources are just handled less effectively by government and dispensed in an indiscriminate way that encourages people to continue locating in the known path of predictable disasters."
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Oh Mary!
I have heard it all now. While illegally threatening the President of the United States with bodily harm on ABC's This Week, Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) accused him of visiting hurricane-decimated Louisiana merely in order to stage a "photo-op." She ranted and raved hysterically during her appearance on the televised news show last Sunday, at one point bursting into tears. No doubt about it — her levee broke, big(easy)-time.
It's always something. If President Bush works out, he exercises too much. It never occurs that perhaps this is his only means of relieving the enormous stress and pressure he's under. And now comes this latest bit of antic fabrication, straight from the big brassy mouth of a bureaucratic bass caught in Katrina's rip current. If he tours the hurricane-ravaged coast, he's posing for a photo-op. If he stays away, he doesn't care, isn't "personally engaged," and is perpetrating nothing short of indirect "murder."
It's always something. If President Bush works out, he exercises too much. It never occurs that perhaps this is his only means of relieving the enormous stress and pressure he's under. And now comes this latest bit of antic fabrication, straight from the big brassy mouth of a bureaucratic bass caught in Katrina's rip current. If he tours the hurricane-ravaged coast, he's posing for a photo-op. If he stays away, he doesn't care, isn't "personally engaged," and is perpetrating nothing short of indirect "murder."
Why New Orleans Flooded
Why New Orleans Flooded: "Designed for the Mississippi, Not the Gulf
In an earlier September 2 story the Journal noted that in Louisiana, coastal wetlands provide some shelter from surging seawater, but more than one million acres of coastal wetlands have been lost since 1930 due to development and construction of levees and canals. For every square mile of wetland lost, storm surges rise by one foot.
'Moreover, the levees in New Orleans were built to keep the city from being flooded by the Mississippi, but instead caused it to fall below sea level. Now the Gulf of Mexico has moved into the city,' says the Journal.
As the hurricane rolled into New Orleans, scores of boats broke free or sank. In the Industrial Canal, the gush of water broke a barge from its moorings. It isn't known whose barge it was. The huge steel hull became a water-borne missile. It hurtled into the canal's eastern flood wall just north of the major street passing through the Lower Ninth Ward, leading officials to theorize that the errant barge triggered the 500-foot breach. Water poured into the neighborhood.
When the storm was over, the barge was resting inside the hole. 'Based on what I know and what I saw, the Lower Ninth Ward, Chalmette, St. Bernard, their flooding was instantaneous,' said Col. Rich Wagenaar of the Army Corps.
It didn't help that the Mississippi River, which runs along the southern border of these neighborhoods, rose 11 feet between Sunday and Monday mornings. Coastal experts say that could have worsened flooding by limiting the water's escape route."
In an earlier September 2 story the Journal noted that in Louisiana, coastal wetlands provide some shelter from surging seawater, but more than one million acres of coastal wetlands have been lost since 1930 due to development and construction of levees and canals. For every square mile of wetland lost, storm surges rise by one foot.
'Moreover, the levees in New Orleans were built to keep the city from being flooded by the Mississippi, but instead caused it to fall below sea level. Now the Gulf of Mexico has moved into the city,' says the Journal.
As the hurricane rolled into New Orleans, scores of boats broke free or sank. In the Industrial Canal, the gush of water broke a barge from its moorings. It isn't known whose barge it was. The huge steel hull became a water-borne missile. It hurtled into the canal's eastern flood wall just north of the major street passing through the Lower Ninth Ward, leading officials to theorize that the errant barge triggered the 500-foot breach. Water poured into the neighborhood.
When the storm was over, the barge was resting inside the hole. 'Based on what I know and what I saw, the Lower Ninth Ward, Chalmette, St. Bernard, their flooding was instantaneous,' said Col. Rich Wagenaar of the Army Corps.
It didn't help that the Mississippi River, which runs along the southern border of these neighborhoods, rose 11 feet between Sunday and Monday mornings. Coastal experts say that could have worsened flooding by limiting the water's escape route."
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Monday, September 12, 2005
"Katrina and Playing the Odds" by Jan�Larson
"Katrina and Playing the Odds" by Jan�Larson Katrina and Playing the Odds
Written by Jan Larson
Monday, September 12, 2005
Flood protection levees were first built around New Orleans starting in the late 1800s. Following Hurricane Betsy, the federal government stepped in with the Flood Control Act of 1965. This legislation set in motion a series of levee construction projects design to protect New Orleans [1]. All of the engineering for these projects assumed a fast-moving hurricane equivalent to Betsy, rated as category three on the Saffir-Simpson scale [2].
It has long been known that the levee system could not protect the city from a category four or five hurricane. Why would officials take such a risk when the consequences, as we’ve seen, were so devastating? Two reasons: money and probability.
The likelihood of a category four or stronger hurricane making a direct strike on New Orleans was determined to be about once every 200 to 300 years. In fact, there have only been three category five hurricanes to make landfall in the United States since records have been kept. The cost to upgrade the levee system to protect for this “worst case” was and is not insignificant. In fact, with the projected cost being in the billions of dollars and the probability so low, it is as a practical matter, politically untenable for politicians to ask taxpayers to pony up that kind of money to protect them from something that isn’t likely to happen during their lifetimes. It is especially untenable to ask taxpayers in other states to pick up the tab--which is where federal flood control money comes from.
Before disaster strikes, it is natural for people to think that it won’t happen to them. Just like the lottery, it always happens to someone else, somewhere else, and at some other time.
Commenting on the disaster in New Orleans, Rep. David Obey (D-WI) asked: “How many times do we have to see disaster overwhelm our preparedness before we recognize that we are playing Russian roulette with people's lives, with their livelihoods, and with the life of whole communities?”
The answer is, of course, just about every time. Our government didn’t protect us from terrorists crashing airplanes into buildings before September 11 and they didn’t protect the citizens of New Orleans from a catastrophic flood before Katrina.
Hindsight is always 20/20 and so in the next few months there will undoubtedly be calls to beef up the New Orleans levees to protect against the strongest hurricane likely to ever occur. But is that a good idea? After all, the probability of another category four or five storm hitting New Orleans remains at once every 200-300 years.
There are plenty of areas in the country that are at risk for a natural disaster, some on a massive scale, but hurricanes are never a surprise. If officials act appropriately and citizens act responsibly, there should never be any fatalities as a direct result of a hurricane. Unfortunately, as we’ve seen in New Orleans, appropriate action by government officials and responsible decisions by citizens are not always, if ever, the norm.
We all assume risks every day. There are upwards of 35,000 traffic fatalities in the United States every year, but I’m willing to wager than most if not all of you reading this right now drive regularly. People living in New Orleans have known for years that a devastating hurricane could strike the city and that it was possible for the city to be flooded yet not only did they assume the risk of living there, but many also continued to assume that risk even as Katrina approached.
The city of Seattle sits in the shadow of Mt. Rainier, an active volcano. Much like its neighbor to the south, Mt. Saint Helens, one day it will erupt. It might be 10 years, 100 years or 1000 years, but eventually that day will come. The potential devastation from an eruption is enormous, but as is the case with hurricanes, an eruption of Mt. Rainier is unlikely to be a surprise and the residents of the Puget Sound region assume that risk. If the worst were to happen, there would be great loss of property, but hopefully the loss of life would be minimized through diligent disaster planning.
Seismologists have predicted that some day, sooner or later, a massive earthquake (the “big one”) will strike California. Again, when that day will come is anyone’s guess. Unlike hurricanes along the coast or volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest, a California earthquake would likely not come with a warning and the loss of life could number in the hundreds of thousands but the odds-makers say that it won’t happen anytime soon, so millions of people are willing to take that chance.
Governments cannot protect everyone from everything that may happen and it would, in the big picture, be irresponsible of government to try. There are better ways to spend (or not spend) billions of dollars than to try to protect New Orleans from a category five hurricane, Seattle from a volcanic eruption, or California from earthquakes.
We have seen that even if government has a plan, such as the evacuation plan for the city of New Orleans that was largely ignored, the best-laid plans won’t protect everyone from disaster. It is ultimately up to each individual to choose the level of risk to assume. In the end, people are largely responsible for their own well being and as we’ve seen, to misjudge the risks or to ignore the danger when it stares us in the face can be fatal.
Written by Jan Larson
Monday, September 12, 2005
Flood protection levees were first built around New Orleans starting in the late 1800s. Following Hurricane Betsy, the federal government stepped in with the Flood Control Act of 1965. This legislation set in motion a series of levee construction projects design to protect New Orleans [1]. All of the engineering for these projects assumed a fast-moving hurricane equivalent to Betsy, rated as category three on the Saffir-Simpson scale [2].
It has long been known that the levee system could not protect the city from a category four or five hurricane. Why would officials take such a risk when the consequences, as we’ve seen, were so devastating? Two reasons: money and probability.
The likelihood of a category four or stronger hurricane making a direct strike on New Orleans was determined to be about once every 200 to 300 years. In fact, there have only been three category five hurricanes to make landfall in the United States since records have been kept. The cost to upgrade the levee system to protect for this “worst case” was and is not insignificant. In fact, with the projected cost being in the billions of dollars and the probability so low, it is as a practical matter, politically untenable for politicians to ask taxpayers to pony up that kind of money to protect them from something that isn’t likely to happen during their lifetimes. It is especially untenable to ask taxpayers in other states to pick up the tab--which is where federal flood control money comes from.
Before disaster strikes, it is natural for people to think that it won’t happen to them. Just like the lottery, it always happens to someone else, somewhere else, and at some other time.
Commenting on the disaster in New Orleans, Rep. David Obey (D-WI) asked: “How many times do we have to see disaster overwhelm our preparedness before we recognize that we are playing Russian roulette with people's lives, with their livelihoods, and with the life of whole communities?”
The answer is, of course, just about every time. Our government didn’t protect us from terrorists crashing airplanes into buildings before September 11 and they didn’t protect the citizens of New Orleans from a catastrophic flood before Katrina.
Hindsight is always 20/20 and so in the next few months there will undoubtedly be calls to beef up the New Orleans levees to protect against the strongest hurricane likely to ever occur. But is that a good idea? After all, the probability of another category four or five storm hitting New Orleans remains at once every 200-300 years.
There are plenty of areas in the country that are at risk for a natural disaster, some on a massive scale, but hurricanes are never a surprise. If officials act appropriately and citizens act responsibly, there should never be any fatalities as a direct result of a hurricane. Unfortunately, as we’ve seen in New Orleans, appropriate action by government officials and responsible decisions by citizens are not always, if ever, the norm.
We all assume risks every day. There are upwards of 35,000 traffic fatalities in the United States every year, but I’m willing to wager than most if not all of you reading this right now drive regularly. People living in New Orleans have known for years that a devastating hurricane could strike the city and that it was possible for the city to be flooded yet not only did they assume the risk of living there, but many also continued to assume that risk even as Katrina approached.
The city of Seattle sits in the shadow of Mt. Rainier, an active volcano. Much like its neighbor to the south, Mt. Saint Helens, one day it will erupt. It might be 10 years, 100 years or 1000 years, but eventually that day will come. The potential devastation from an eruption is enormous, but as is the case with hurricanes, an eruption of Mt. Rainier is unlikely to be a surprise and the residents of the Puget Sound region assume that risk. If the worst were to happen, there would be great loss of property, but hopefully the loss of life would be minimized through diligent disaster planning.
Seismologists have predicted that some day, sooner or later, a massive earthquake (the “big one”) will strike California. Again, when that day will come is anyone’s guess. Unlike hurricanes along the coast or volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest, a California earthquake would likely not come with a warning and the loss of life could number in the hundreds of thousands but the odds-makers say that it won’t happen anytime soon, so millions of people are willing to take that chance.
Governments cannot protect everyone from everything that may happen and it would, in the big picture, be irresponsible of government to try. There are better ways to spend (or not spend) billions of dollars than to try to protect New Orleans from a category five hurricane, Seattle from a volcanic eruption, or California from earthquakes.
We have seen that even if government has a plan, such as the evacuation plan for the city of New Orleans that was largely ignored, the best-laid plans won’t protect everyone from disaster. It is ultimately up to each individual to choose the level of risk to assume. In the end, people are largely responsible for their own well being and as we’ve seen, to misjudge the risks or to ignore the danger when it stares us in the face can be fatal.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
ex-Liberal in Hollywood: New Orleans: Where Laid Back is Laid Bare
http://exlibhollywood.blogspot.com/2005/09/new-orleans-where-laid-back-is-laid.html
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