Katrina Retrospective 5
On the August 27 edition of Le Show, Harry Shearer conducted a two-part interview with Dr. Ivor van Heerden, Deputy Director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, looking back at the causes and effects of the flood of the Gulf Coast and, particularly, New Orleans.
Those who would trust the current Federal Administration, as manifested in FEMA, and the Corps of Army Engineers, as manifested in decades of decayed pork, may find it disturbing.
Harry Shearer’s website masks internal URLs. You can listen to the show by going the website, selecting Projects–>Le Show and searching “Past Shows” for August 2006.
Or you may listen to Part One here and Part Two here. Listen to the whole show here (Real Player).
September 6, 2006 at 4:24 pm
Cause: Build a city on the seacoast, below sea level, then wait for a big storm.
Effect: Find out just how hopeless the Federal Administration, Army Corp of Engineers, & FEMA are.
Prevention: Don’t build a large, residential city on swamp land, waiting for a big storm, & depend on the government for help.
September 6, 2006 at 7:18 pm
Well, in extenuation, New Orleans was not below sea level when it was founded.
Efforts to keep it dry–and to open shipping lanes–have helped it become that way.
http://ask.yahoo.com/20041005.html
September 6, 2006 at 9:41 pm
Sometimes basic geography just rules. I don’t see how mankind can live on this continent and not take advantage of having a port at New Orleans.
September 7, 2006 at 9:42 am
Have a port, yes. Have residential areas? No.
September 7, 2006 at 8:42 pm
I vote with Karen.
All joking aside and nostalgia aside, I think the low-lying areas of New Orleans are probably best abandoned.
I really don’t like saying that, but it’s the only conclusion that seems doable.
After the floods in the midwest, what, about a decade ago? whole towns moved.
The New Orleans site is clearly untenable. It’s different from the coastal areas, such as Biloxi, which, though they got hit very hard, are still above water. There’s something there upon which to rebuild.
At least until the Greenland glaciers finish melting.
What stinks is, it’s the poor, who perhaps just barely owned their homes, if they owned anything, and had little else, who are getting shafted in this whole routine.