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Hurricane Isaac
Topic Started: Aug 26 2012, 04:31 PM (3,035 Views)
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Baldo
Aug 29 2012, 01:39 PM
One day a CAT 5 will smack New Orleans directly. Katrina was a CAT 3 It is only a matter of time whether it will be 1, 5, 10, 20, or 100 years. It will be leveled. It has happened to New Orleans more than once.

All the King's Men, all the King's Horses, all all the King Levees can't prevent that from happening.

Why do we live in these areas? Go figure. Tornado Alley, San Andreas Fault, the Northwest Seduction Plate off shore Seattle, and a Yellowstone's massive caldera volcanic explosion all present various calamities & risks to catastrophic possibilities.

But still you wonder why one would live in an area that floods every so often?

Because somebody else pays the bill to reconstruct.
Indeed. After Katrina, there were studies done about how New Orleans didn't allow building below sea level for a long time. Then in the 20's, I think it was, developers convinced city fathers that flood-prone areas could be protected by levees. But no matter how high the levee, sooner or later a storm will come along that is higher yet.

It's kind of like how flood plains also make great farmland. Too valuable to grow soybeans, cotton, or whatever, to leave fallow.
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kbp

If the funds will be dumped into rebuilding them again (and again) they need to work a little more on design. Something along the lines of elevated and sturdy, so the water levels and winds are not such a problem to worry about and pay for.

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Is rebuilding how the New Orleans area creates jobs? Why have they not done that, it is used all over areas subject to high water storms?
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kbp
Aug 29 2012, 01:56 PM
If the funds will be dumped into rebuilding them again (and again) they need to work a little more on design. Something along the lines of elevated and sturdy, so the water levels and winds are not such a problem to worry about and pay for.

Posted Image

Is rebuilding how the New Orleans area creates jobs? Why have they not done that, it is used all over areas subject to high water storms?
Look at the close-up Google satellite view of that area. Betcha its near the Braithwaite Golf Course, which had a small levee around it. No telling what the buyers were told when they bought the houses.
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kbp

abb
Aug 29 2012, 01:58 PM
kbp
Aug 29 2012, 01:56 PM
If the funds will be dumped into rebuilding them again (and again) they need to work a little more on design. Something along the lines of elevated and sturdy, so the water levels and winds are not such a problem to worry about and pay for.

Posted Image

Is rebuilding how the New Orleans area creates jobs? Why have they not done that, it is used all over areas subject to high water storms?
Look at the close-up Google satellite view of that area. Betcha its near the Braithwaite Golf Course, which had a small levee around it. No telling what the buyers were told when they bought the houses.
I am not familiar with how things work down there, but up here you must purchase flood insurance BEFORE a mortgage lender will allow you to close on the purchase of a house within a 100 year or less flood plain.

I'd assume it is the same there, so any buyer should say "WHOA ...why do I need flood insurance?".

Makes me wonder IF the federal office that underwrites the flood insurance ever review WTH they are insuring and refuse to cover it?????

Edited by kbp, Aug 29 2012, 02:09 PM.
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kbp
Aug 29 2012, 02:08 PM
abb
Aug 29 2012, 01:58 PM
kbp
Aug 29 2012, 01:56 PM
If the funds will be dumped into rebuilding them again (and again) they need to work a little more on design. Something along the lines of elevated and sturdy, so the water levels and winds are not such a problem to worry about and pay for.

Posted Image

Is rebuilding how the New Orleans area creates jobs? Why have they not done that, it is used all over areas subject to high water storms?
Look at the close-up Google satellite view of that area. Betcha its near the Braithwaite Golf Course, which had a small levee around it. No telling what the buyers were told when they bought the houses.
I am not familiar with how things work down there, but up here you must purchase flood insurance BEFORE a mortgage lender will allow you to close on the purchase of a house within a 100 year or less flood plain.

I'd assume it is the same there, so any buyer should say "WHOA ...why do I need flood insurance?".

Makes me wonder IF the federal office that underwrites the flood insurance ever review WTH they are insuring and refuse to cover it?????

Zoom out the area view so as to see where the marsh intersects the Gulf of Mexico. Braithwaite is the apex of an inverted "funnel" bounded on the west side by the Mississippi River and on the east by the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet. Both those waterways are paralleled by levee systems along the banks of the waterways. This storm came onshore perfectly aligned to push seawater northward into the cone apex and into Braithwaite.

Likely no storm had ever aligned just so and maybe that's how they got away with a "100 year" designation.

Informed speculation on my part only...

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http://www.google.com/mapmaker?ll=29.574651,-89.379272&spn=1.784339,3.867187&t=h&z=9&q=braithwaite,+la&utm_source=mapseditbutton_normal&gw=30&lyt=large_map
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Baldo
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In most of California you must build above he 100 year flood plain. It isn't an option when it comes unincorporated areas. Those houses look new in Braithwaite.

It is fine with me that they build there, just don't sell them Flood Insurance guarantee by the USA govt and expect me to subsidize the re-building costs.
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kbp

Looks wet and sheltered by levies all over the place down there. Hard to tell how it lays without a contour map. If it's not many feet above water before the storm, it's not a good place to be during the storm.
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kbp
Aug 29 2012, 02:47 PM
Looks wet and sheltered by levies all over the place down there. Hard to tell how it lays without a contour map. If it's not many feet above water before the storm, it's not a good place to be during the storm.
There ain't no contour to it at all. It's prairie marsh, flat as a city hall secretary's behind.
:X

http://louisiana.hometownlocator.com/la/plaquemines/braithwaite.cfm

Braithwaite is a populated place located in Plaquemines Parish at latitude 29.866 and longitude -89.944.

The elevation is 7 feet. Braithwaite appears on the Belle Chasse U.S. Geological Survey Map. Plaquemines Parish is in the Central Time Zone (UTC -6 hours).
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kbp

abb
Aug 29 2012, 03:02 PM
kbp
Aug 29 2012, 02:47 PM
Looks wet and sheltered by levies all over the place down there. Hard to tell how it lays without a contour map. If it's not many feet above water before the storm, it's not a good place to be during the storm.
There ain't no contour to it at all. It's prairie marsh, flat as a city hall secretary's behind.
:X

http://louisiana.hometownlocator.com/la/plaquemines/braithwaite.cfm

Braithwaite is a populated place located in Plaquemines Parish at latitude 29.866 and longitude -89.944.

The elevation is 7 feet. Braithwaite appears on the Belle Chasse U.S. Geological Survey Map. Plaquemines Parish is in the Central Time Zone (UTC -6 hours).
The Mississippi appears to have about 100 miles to flow from near Braithwaite before it dumps into the Gulf. That 7 feet elevation seems like it would either be below the river level or else the Mississippi flows terribly flat down there ...which would still leave Braithwaite subject to floods often.
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kbp
Aug 29 2012, 03:14 PM
abb
Aug 29 2012, 03:02 PM
kbp
Aug 29 2012, 02:47 PM
Looks wet and sheltered by levies all over the place down there. Hard to tell how it lays without a contour map. If it's not many feet above water before the storm, it's not a good place to be during the storm.
There ain't no contour to it at all. It's prairie marsh, flat as a city hall secretary's behind.
:X

http://louisiana.hometownlocator.com/la/plaquemines/braithwaite.cfm

Braithwaite is a populated place located in Plaquemines Parish at latitude 29.866 and longitude -89.944.

The elevation is 7 feet. Braithwaite appears on the Belle Chasse U.S. Geological Survey Map. Plaquemines Parish is in the Central Time Zone (UTC -6 hours).
The Mississippi appears to have about 100 miles to flow from near Braithwaite before it dumps into the Gulf. That 7 feet elevation seems like it would either be below the river level or else the Mississippi flows terribly flat down there ...which would still leave Braithwaite subject to floods often.
The Mississippi is flanked on both banks in that area by levees of about elevation 24'. This water was pushed NORTHWARD into the populated areas that are alongside the natural "high ground" along the riverbank. The mainline river levees acted as a stop against which the water "piled up."
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http://www.nola.com/175years/index.ssf/2012/04/our_times_blasting_mississippi.html
Looking back at the blasting of the Mississippi River levee at Caernarvon
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http://www.nola.com/hurricane/index.ssf/2012/08/state_may_open_caernarvon_dive.html
State may open Caernarvon diversion to get water out of Plaquemines
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chatham
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I guess the "swamp people" wont be tagging any gators for a while.
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Baldo
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Joe Bastardi ‏@BigJoeBastardi

Heard many tidal gages on LA coast got within foot or two of record. How does a cat one challenge cat 3 and 4s. Answer it wasnt a cat 1
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