Rebuilding New Orleans With Science

EccentricAnomaly writes "The New York Times has a discussion of flood control methods in use in Holland, England, and Bangladesh that could be used in the rebuilding of New Orleans. Of particular interest is the $8 billion Delta Works built by the Netherlands in response to the North Sea flood of 1953, which almost destroyed the city of Rotterdam, but for a heroic captain who plugged a breach in a dike with his ship." From the article: "While scientists hail the power of technology to thwart destructive forces, they note that flood control is a job for nature at least as much as for engineers. Long before anyone built levees and floodgates, barrier islands were serving to block dangerous storm surges. Of course, those islands often fall victim to coastal development."

Comments

I know...

[Anonymous Coward]

Fill everything up with Jello Powder!

Got To Go There

[lbmouse]

...a heroic captain who plugged a breach in a dike with his ship.
 
Sounds like the trashy novels my wife reads. Was his ship full of sea men?

Lessons from Monty Python

[Rei]

When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a city on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That blew down, flooded, and then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up! And that's what you're going to get lad, the strongest city in all of America!