Saving New Orleans
Jul. 4th, 2005 08:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mishalakAnd likewise many other historic seaside cities that are at or below sea level.
More and higher levees will not ultimately save New Orleans and most people who have looked at the problem understand this. They have made the city into essentially a big bowl averaging close to three meters below sea level. If the levees are simply made higher the city will continue to sink and it will stave off a terrible disaster today for a monstrous disaster someday in the future. Actually saving the city for the long term will be very costly, though simple in concept.
As with other cities in the past, for example Chicago, the whole city needs to be raised at least four meters, some 13 feet, to not only get the city above sea level but also give it some breathing room. Secondly the wetland areas near the city must be replenished with mud from the Mississippi River to raise the level of the swamp to provide a wider barrier to storm surges. The most effective way to do this would be to divert a large portion of the Mississippi's flow through areas that are swampy and subsiding.
This is simple to say, but not easy to do. The cost is likely to be beyond what the state of Louisiana can support by itself even with additional taxes. And there is the matter of political will. The rest of the nation may feel reluctant to do anything to save what is viewed from afar as a sin city not unlike Las Vegas. And there will be the disruption to the city in raising all those historic and non-historic homes.
It might be possible, however, to sell the American public as large as supporting the whole cost of raising the historic parts of New Orleans if the state will pick of the tab for the rest. Of course it would take a politician from somewhere else in the country to get the ball rolling on this or else a very powerful member of congress from Louisiana who could pull a "big dig" type deal by virtue of having an important office. Otherwise the whole thing remains just a local problem that probably won't get solved until something terrible happens.
More and higher levees will not ultimately save New Orleans and most people who have looked at the problem understand this. They have made the city into essentially a big bowl averaging close to three meters below sea level. If the levees are simply made higher the city will continue to sink and it will stave off a terrible disaster today for a monstrous disaster someday in the future. Actually saving the city for the long term will be very costly, though simple in concept.
As with other cities in the past, for example Chicago, the whole city needs to be raised at least four meters, some 13 feet, to not only get the city above sea level but also give it some breathing room. Secondly the wetland areas near the city must be replenished with mud from the Mississippi River to raise the level of the swamp to provide a wider barrier to storm surges. The most effective way to do this would be to divert a large portion of the Mississippi's flow through areas that are swampy and subsiding.
This is simple to say, but not easy to do. The cost is likely to be beyond what the state of Louisiana can support by itself even with additional taxes. And there is the matter of political will. The rest of the nation may feel reluctant to do anything to save what is viewed from afar as a sin city not unlike Las Vegas. And there will be the disruption to the city in raising all those historic and non-historic homes.
It might be possible, however, to sell the American public as large as supporting the whole cost of raising the historic parts of New Orleans if the state will pick of the tab for the rest. Of course it would take a politician from somewhere else in the country to get the ball rolling on this or else a very powerful member of congress from Louisiana who could pull a "big dig" type deal by virtue of having an important office. Otherwise the whole thing remains just a local problem that probably won't get solved until something terrible happens.
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Date: 2005-07-05 04:51 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-06 04:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-05 11:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-06 04:35 am (UTC)