Dee Flint wrote:
"Frank Gilliland" wrote in message
...
On 5 Sep 2005 18:27:06 -0700, wrote in
ps.com:
snip
It's been known for years - decades - that if a big enough
storm came ashore in the right place, NO would be in big
trouble. A little more than a week ago it looked like
Katrina would hit NO dead-on with full Category 5 force.
Had that happened - and it was a real possibility - things
would probably be even worse there than today.
The first hurricane to flood the city happened in 1927. Hurricane
Betsy hit the city in 1965, flooded half the city and left 60,000
homeless. It's not like they didn't know this could happen.
Yet even with all that warning, the levee system was only good
for a Category 3 storm. People kept building there. even as the ground
kept sinking. Why?
Because of better weather prediction technology, and assurances from
the state and federal governments that they would provide assistance
in such a disaster. And because a thriving economy had already been
established -- i.e, "thar's gold in them thar swamps".
Most of all, why wasn't everyone evacuated *before* the storm?
I know some refused to go, but many more simply did not have
the means to go. Why wasn't there a better plan in place beforehand?
That's a question that will need to be answered by the state and
federal governments in the coming months.
Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico aren't a new or
unusual thing.
Or is that sort of thing too "liberal" for this era?
Meanwhile, Americans keep building big expensive homes and
buildings in lowlying coastal areas. And in places where the
ground shakes every so often.
And around active volcanoes, in tornado hot-zones, at the bottom of
steep mountain slopes, on muddy hillsides, etc.
Tornado "hot zones" just happen to coincide with some of the best farmland
in this country.
Why?
Because people think "it can't happen to me".
Besides there is no place on earth that isn't subject to some type of
natural disaster or another.
True. Even here in the woods of PA, there are occasional flirtations
with disaster. In 1985 a tornado touched down in Penfield near Parker
Dam State Park, and continued on the ground for 99 minutes in a 60 mile
long path to just north of Lock Haven PA. Blew down 26K of forest in a
path that varied from 300 yards to 1.5 miles wide. A real monster that
happened on some of the more mountainous terrain in PA. Fortunately, it
was in a virtually uninhabited area.
So it can happen anywhere. The odds are a little better here than in
the alley tho'.
- Mike KB3EIA -