Their Levees - Our Levees

To understand the cruddy condition of the levees in NOLA, one first has to understand the political carnival that is Louisiana politics...

1. Louisiana is the only state in the US whose laws are based on French Common Law instead of British Parliamentary law.

2. Corruption is rampant in Louisiana politics, and always has been.

3. The Cajuns LIKE it that way - since the days of Huey Long, who was one of the most popular Governors in Louisiana history, the crazy cajuns have voted for corruption every time - for concrete proof, go google Edwin Edwards - read on the scandals and how he was thrown from office, only to be returned to office after a term of being out.

Now follow the money trail and figure out why the levees were poorly maintained and outdated... I personally guarantee you that most of the moneys allocated for levee maintenance and updates was funneled directly into Mayor Berry's pockets, and several other corrupt politician's pockets all the way up the chain. Now that the situation has national attention, expect the levees to come in line to today's standards or better, and expect them to stay that way until the national eye is moved elsewhere...then the erosion/corruption begins anew.

To understand the cruddy condition of the levees in NOLA, one first has to understand the political carnival that is Louisiana politics...

1. Louisiana is the only state in the US whose laws are based on French Common Law instead of British Parliamentary law.

2. Corruption is rampant in Louisiana politics, and always has been.

3. The Cajuns LIKE it that way - since the days of Huey Long, who was one of the most popular Governors in Louisiana history, the crazy cajuns have voted for corruption every time - for concrete proof, go google Edwin Edwards - read on the scandals and how he was thrown from office, only to be returned to office after a term of being out.

Now follow the money trail and figure out why the levees were poorly maintained and outdated... I personally guarantee you that most of the moneys allocated for levee maintenance and updates was funneled directly into Mayor Berry's pockets, and several other corrupt politician's pockets all the way up the chain. Now that the situation has national attention, expect the levees to come in line to today's standards or better, and expect them to stay that way until the national eye is moved elsewhere...then the erosion/corruption begins anew.

Nihil > I know that, technically, I shouldn't call it a hurricane. The winds reached 11 on the Beaufort scale. 8 on the Beaufort scale is an F0 tornado, while everything above 11 is a hurricane.

The difference is that in The Netherlands, the winds didn't cause direct damage: they did, however, move a mass of water the size of the North Sea and dropped it on The Netherlands.

The Deltaworks are designed to stop hurricanes, and can easily withstand hurricane-strength winds. Those dikes don't care what you call what you throw at them...
That doesn't mean that there won't be any water going over the dikes, but they won't move an inch no matter what size hurricane you throw at them - because that's what they're designed for. The Dutch are ready for something that happens once every 10,000 years, NO wasn't ready for something that happens once every 50 years...

Nihil > I know that, technically, I shouldn't call it a hurricane. The winds reached 11 on the Beaufort scale. 8 on the Beaufort scale is an F0 tornado, while everything above 11 is a hurricane.

The difference is that in The Netherlands, the winds didn't cause direct damage: they did, however, move a mass of water the size of the North Sea and dropped it on The Netherlands.

The Deltaworks are designed to stop hurricanes, and can easily withstand hurricane-strength winds. Those dikes don't care what you call what you throw at them...
That doesn't mean that there won't be any water going over the dikes, but they won't move an inch no matter what size hurricane you throw at them - because that's what they're designed for. The Dutch are ready for something that happens once every 10,000 years, NO wasn't ready for something that happens once every 50 years...

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Yesterday, the Louisiana State Senate refused to shut down the operations of one of the most corrupt government bodies in the history of the state, the Orleans Parish Levee Board. It was saved once again despite a checkered history that includes spending thousands of dollars on a private detective to trail a radio talk show host critic and spending millions of dollars on projects that were not germane to the safety of the citizens of New Orleans-bridges, casinos, buildings, fiber-optic networks, privatization of an airport, commercial real estate and more.

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http://www.bayoubuzz.com/articles.aspx?aid=5532

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Yesterday, the Louisiana State Senate refused to shut down the operations of one of the most corrupt government bodies in the history of the state, the Orleans Parish Levee Board. It was saved once again despite a checkered history that includes spending thousands of dollars on a private detective to trail a radio talk show host critic and spending millions of dollars on projects that were not germane to the safety of the citizens of New Orleans-bridges, casinos, buildings, fiber-optic networks, privatization of an airport, commercial real estate and more.

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http://www.bayoubuzz.com/articles.aspx?aid=5532

I have just come across this article which seems to support my educated guesswork :)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...092001894.html

Negative You are quite correct, it is the storm surge and not the wind that we have problems with. For example, the Beaufort scale (of windspeed) only goes up to #12 which is defined as 73-83Mph. A category #1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson is 74-95 Mph. That is really because S-S is designed to predict/measure danger and structural damage potential.

The Dutch system is designed to handle surges of c17-20 ft. Katerina only produced 11ft., which is well within the specification. Your comment about water going over the defences ("overtopping") is interesting as it is a lesson we learned from 1953.......................you need to protect both sides of your defences or they will certainly be undermined from the back.

Another thing to consider is the sheer size of a tropical cyclone compared to our cyclonic depressions, and the fact that the tropical cyclone has an eye. Our Thames Barrier would be about as much use as the Maginot Line :D that is a bit academic though, as it would require a Tropical Continental airmass, and they cannot develop a cyclonic depression.

I have just come across this article which seems to support my educated guesswork :)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...092001894.html

Negative You are quite correct, it is the storm surge and not the wind that we have problems with. For example, the Beaufort scale (of windspeed) only goes up to #12 which is defined as 73-83Mph. A category #1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson is 74-95 Mph. That is really because S-S is designed to predict/measure danger and structural damage potential.

The Dutch system is designed to handle surges of c17-20 ft. Katerina only produced 11ft., which is well within the specification. Your comment about water going over the defences ("overtopping") is interesting as it is a lesson we learned from 1953.......................you need to protect both sides of your defences or they will certainly be undermined from the back.

Another thing to consider is the sheer size of a tropical cyclone compared to our cyclonic depressions, and the fact that the tropical cyclone has an eye. Our Thames Barrier would be about as much use as the Maginot Line :D that is a bit academic though, as it would require a Tropical Continental airmass, and they cannot develop a cyclonic depression.

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Originally posted here by Negative
Those dikes don't care what you call what you throw at them...

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Try throwing a Penis at them. They hate that.

Quote:

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Originally posted here by Negative
Those dikes don't care what you call what you throw at them...

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Try throwing a Penis at them. They hate that.