Hurricane Katrina
Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 1:00 am
I urge everyone to go to the http://www.redcross.org website and donate. This is a time to step up and give where it hurts. It seems like the Gulf coast has been pounded one too much the last couple of years. I was wondering if Lochar had visited New Orleans recently. If I remember correctly that the four hurricanes that hit Florida had been aimed at him.
Just joking though. Here in San Antonio and in Houston we are already reciving victims/refugees of Katrina and they are like shell shocked bomb attack victims. Their eyes are glazed and it will be many many years for them to recover from this.
Let me make a rant now on how I think it is absolutely iddiotic to talk of rebuilding that city while it lies in an area that is 6 or more feet below sea level. It would be cheaper and more effective to move people 20-30 miles inland to higher ground. Here in the central Texas area many have been flooded out of 50 and 100 year flood plains and the federal government and local governments have bought out that land and forced them to relocate. The same should be done with New Orleans. There is nothing there that is SO Historic or SO valuable to have to do this all again the next time a hurricane hits that area.
I know that there is much shipping and other commerce that goes on there but this problem stems from the fact that the Mississippi has been channelized and not allowed to flood it's banks in nearly 100 years. It used to be that the river would lay down more silt and deposit it to raise the level of the land back up. But this has not been allowed to happen naturally. The time and money and energy should be better spent on helping people start a new life at a new location. This is from experience speaking and dealing with flood victims in the Texas Hill Country and in Houston. Many houses would have been faster and cheaper to knock down and rebuild than to recover and renovate. They are never the same.
Thanks for letting me rant.
J-Man5
Just joking though. Here in San Antonio and in Houston we are already reciving victims/refugees of Katrina and they are like shell shocked bomb attack victims. Their eyes are glazed and it will be many many years for them to recover from this.
Let me make a rant now on how I think it is absolutely iddiotic to talk of rebuilding that city while it lies in an area that is 6 or more feet below sea level. It would be cheaper and more effective to move people 20-30 miles inland to higher ground. Here in the central Texas area many have been flooded out of 50 and 100 year flood plains and the federal government and local governments have bought out that land and forced them to relocate. The same should be done with New Orleans. There is nothing there that is SO Historic or SO valuable to have to do this all again the next time a hurricane hits that area.
I know that there is much shipping and other commerce that goes on there but this problem stems from the fact that the Mississippi has been channelized and not allowed to flood it's banks in nearly 100 years. It used to be that the river would lay down more silt and deposit it to raise the level of the land back up. But this has not been allowed to happen naturally. The time and money and energy should be better spent on helping people start a new life at a new location. This is from experience speaking and dealing with flood victims in the Texas Hill Country and in Houston. Many houses would have been faster and cheaper to knock down and rebuild than to recover and renovate. They are never the same.
Thanks for letting me rant.
J-Man5