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http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/02 ... index.html

Great. Now I hafta find someplace Up North to move....

Everyone else not in LA feel free to make with the Atlantis jokes...

Wow, this is pretty messed up. You should head to solid ground as soon as you can.

And I always thought it'd be California first

Man, who's bright idea was it to put houses on silt in the first place?

Actually its not Lousiana sinking, its not even water levels rising due to global warming.

Its R'yleh rising!

weemadando wrote:Actually its not Lousiana sinking, its not even water levels rising due to global warming.

Its R'yleh rising!

But why Lousiana? There must be larger pits of despair than that.

neoolong wrote:But why Lousiana? There must be larger pits of despair than that.

It has to do with all the leeves we've built over that last couple decades to control flooding. Flooding is nature's way to replace land lost from erosion. Because we have put a stop to flooding, the land lost to errosion is not being replaced, and the state is shrinking. The thing about New Orleans is that it literally sits in a bowl sorrounded on all sides by water, with only a handful (I think 5) bridges in and out. In the event of a direct hit from a strong hurricane, all evacuation routes could be destroyed, leaving the citizens to drown when the storm surge fills the city. The only think that keeps the city from flooding during normal rainfall is a system of pumps, that literally "bail out" the city like a crew on a leaky boat.

To be quite honest, unless something drastic is done (and I mean the largest public works project since the Panama Canal), New Orleans is fucked next time an Andrew of Camile comes its way.

Dalton wrote:Wow, this is pretty messed up. You should head to solid ground as soon as you can.

And I always thought it'd be California first

Actually, it's common knowledge that the state of Louisiana is existing on borrowed time. It's mostly below sea-level and built on mud and silt. The first major hurricane that directly strikes the area would turn Louisiana into the Mississippi Bay.

IIRC, a lot of the levees and walls that protect the New Orleans would actually help keep water IN if a sufficiently powerful hurricane swept enough ocean water in the right direction, thus turning it into a giant lethal fishbowl.

There's only so long you can fight Mother Nature; the solution is to move to higher ground, rather than living in a CITY BELOW SEA LEVEL.

Darth Wong wrote:IIRC, a lot of the levees and walls that protect the New Orleans would actually help keep water IN if a sufficiently powerful hurricane swept enough ocean water in the right direction, thus turning it into a giant lethal fishbowl.

There's only so long you can fight Mother Nature; the solution is to move to higher ground, rather than living in a CITY BELOW SEA LEVEL.

Try telling that to the Netherlands.

Darth Wong wrote:There's only so long you can fight Mother Nature; the solution is to move to higher ground, rather than living in a CITY BELOW SEA LEVEL.

I'm sorry, but you must be thinking of some other state. This is Louisiana, we don't do long term planning down here.

Couldn't you open the levies every ten or fifteen years and dump a shitload of fresh silt into the GUlf of Mexico? it'd be a pain in the ass, but it'd be better than getting fucked by a hurricane or an earthquake when the New Madrid fault lets go again.

Darth Wong wrote:IIRC, a lot of the levees and walls that protect the New Orleans would actually help keep water IN if a sufficiently powerful hurricane swept enough ocean water in the right direction, thus turning it into a giant lethal fishbowl.

There's only so long you can fight Mother Nature; the solution is to move to higher ground, rather than living in a CITY BELOW SEA LEVEL.

Part of the city is above sea level or extremely close to it IIRC. The current plan is to build another levee across the city, so the "high" area could be a safe haven in case of a bad storm. However besides cost there's also the problem of building it, while retaining enough gaps to keep traffic flowing. You need some fairly large ramps; using movable walls would cost a huge amount while compromising the levees strength.

As for keeping water in, the US Army Corps of Engineers has a proud history of blasting huge holes in its creation to let water in and out.