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

Arrogance

[KrackHouse]

I think our uncanny ability to warm the planet has given us a false sense of capablility. Rebuilding large cities below sea level in Hurricane Alley is a recipe for disaster. Politicians calling for rebuilding are Soup Nazis.

Massive, post disaster, federal bailouts of property damage just encourage more building in disaster prone areas which inevitably leads to the death of low income citizens that can't evacuate.

Move to higher ground

[WAR-Ink]

Some in the house and senate have voiced the politically incorrect position of "maybe it was a little dumb to build below sea level, right next to the sea."

I happen to agree. Move New Orleans to higher ground. Let the ocean have the original site. Spending billions on ANY plan is a waste of my tax dollars.

I live on the side of the fault that slides into the ocean when the big one hits California. I don't expect the US government to spend billions to reattach it. But, I would expect them to save me a spot on the new beach front property to replace my previous submarine property.

They built a city below sea level, in a swamp. A hurrican came, it blew away, burnt down and sunk into the swamp. What did they expect?