Zacht Ei - Not a good day for New Orleans

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Not a good day for New Orleans

As someone who lives in a country that is for a large part below sea level, I can only empathize with the citizens of New Orleans.

Read a rather stark warning here.

Blogger Steve Gregory offers some rather intimidating insights into Katrina.

Good luck guys. Maybe the Dutch can help rebuild the place afterwards. God knows we went through (a rather moist version of) hell once. Since then, we've indulged in a few nifty gadgets.

Hopefully it won't be as bad in New Orleans.

(On the bright side: getting through the list of potential names for your baby girl suddenly got a bit easier.)

Update 29/8, 0.08:

'In 2002, an American Red Cross estimate found 25,000 to 100,000 people would be killed if a major hurricane hit the New Orleans area.'

Holy mother of God.

22:25

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Gotta love my new watch

Katrina links roundup

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Problem is the dikes (levees) that protect the Netherlands are a different animal than the ones that protect New Orleans. Southern Louisiana was built up on silt brought down the Mississipi River. The levees built 50+ years ago cut off this silt, causing southern Louisiana to sink.

A city like Amsterdam has a future. I think New Orleans will have to be written off. Even if New Orleans dodges this bullet, there will be future Katrinas. It's possible to build levees big enough to protect New Orleans, but there will be a point where the economic benefits don't meet the expense.

Every time I got to New Orleans I get a wierd feeling sitting in the French Quarter and watching ships go by on the Mississipi River, and the ships are floating by ABOVE me.

LouMinatti (ip:70.241.99.105) 28 August 2005 - 4:17 uur

With that said, if there are any Dutch engineers with brilliant ideas on how to solve this problem I am sure the Mayor of New Orleans would like to speak with them. :-)

LouMinatti (ip:70.241.99.105) 28 August 2005 - 4:18 uur

I think you have a point. I'm pretty sure Dutch engineers could come up with something, I'm not too sure it would be cheap. The Delta Works were quite expensive, but that didn't matter too much. Our country is very small, surrendering nearly half of it to the sea is simply not an option.

Arjan Dasselaar (ip:82.161.93.35) 28 August 2005 - 19:39 uur

Paging Dutch civil engineers! After what happened in New Orleans today your expertise will be wanted!

That is, if they decide to rebuild.

LouMinatti (ip:70.241.116.206) 28 August 2005 - 2:41 uur

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Not a good day for New Orleans

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