[meteorite-list] OT: New Orleans blamestorming

From: Dawn & Gerald Flaherty <grf2_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Sep 2 16:23:03 2005
Message-ID: <109501c5affb$fd33ce10$6502a8c0_at_GerryLaptop>

Sterling and List,
As appalled as anyone by Katrina's wrath, I too wish we could tweak the
past.
The enormity of the devistation, the breath and scope of the calamity
challenges our will and resources.
Unanticipated, underestimated and unimaginable are the watchwords to be
faced ONCE and surmounted as we as a nation deal with this dis-ASTER,
together. Once again, reality surpases fiction. Even the minority who forsaw
something akin to the effects of Katrina remain astounded as we all should
in the face of Nature's Power over our feeble attempts at control.
Jerry Flaherty
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sterling K. Webb" <kelly_at_bhil.com>
To: <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Cc: "Martin Altmann" <Altmann_at_Meteorite-Martin.de>
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2005 12:56 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] OT: New Orleans blamestorming


> Hi, All,
>
> No, "the smart thing" would be to go on enjoying
> the life available to those who live on a gorgeous tropical
> coast, which is what people will do.
> Despite the present severe event, the truth is that
> of all "natural" disasters, when averaged out over the years,
> the biggest killer is lightening, far exceeding the deaths
> caused by hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis,
> airplane crashes, and other dramatic events.
> The estimation of risk in the human mind is unduely
> influenced by the clustering of losses in time. Lightening
> deaths are well distributed in a random low level of
> events, while a hurricane's victims are all affected at one
> time, however infrequent the event.
> A Chicxulub impactor striking the Earth and killing
> 6 billion people after a lapse of 60 million years since
> the last one would amount to an average of 100 deaths
> per year, but nowhere near world wide lightening deaths!
> The first flaw in the above example is that there haven't
> been humans around for 60 million years, of course. The
> second flaw is that there are consequences to the sheer
> scale of the disaster.
> What happened at New Orleans was entirely preventable
> by human means, namely the system of levees that protected,
> or should have protected, the city from flooding. For over a
> decade, their maintenance, repair, and expansion have been
> de-funded progressively every year -- "We don't have the
> money right now." The present budget proposal before
> Congress calls for a 71 million dollar cut in funding for those
> levees next year! Having "saved" about 250 million dollars
> over the last decade, we are now faced with many tens of
> billions of costs for their reconstruction.
> As any good engineer would tell you, what should have
> been done was to floodgate Lake Pontchartrain so that it
> could be closed to ocean water, which ocean overfilling of
> the Lake was what flooded New Orleans. Like so many
> fundamental problems, this disaster could have been totally
> prevented by the application of centuries old technologies
> that are well understood and require only the intelligence
> and willingness to do so. The Sumerians would have done
> a better job of water management than we have over the
> last decade.
> With or without global warming, there will always be
> storms on the ocean sea, whatever their frequency, and
> people will always live on the edge of the water -- 70%
> of humanity always has and will continue to do so. And
> lightening will continue to kill more people than storms,
> oceanic or continental, ever do.
>
>
> Sterling K. Webb
> -----------------------------------------
> Pete Pete wrote:
>
> > From: "Chris Peterson" <clp_at_alumni.caltech.edu>
> > To: <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
> > Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] OT: New Orleans blamestorming
> > Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2005 08:48:24 -0600
> >
> > >>Of course, the folly of New Orleans is that it is a coastal city built
> > >>below sea level. Much of the damage caused by Katrina was unrelated to
the
> > >>wind directly, and was produced by flooding. It doesn't much matter
what
> > >>your construction material is when the water rises. The smart thing to
do
> > >>would be simply to abandon the city. With sea levels rising for the
next
> > >>century or longer, large sections of the Gulf Coast and Florida are
> > >>essentially doomed.<<
> >
> > Excellent point - this is just the beginning for all ocean coasts.
> >
> > On that note,
> >
> > CHEERS!
> > Pete
>
>
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Received on Fri 02 Sep 2005 04:22:05 PM PDT