I certainly pray and wish all the best for the people being tormented by Hurricane Katrina.
At the same time, I have to wonder about the wisdom of building a large city below sea level. What did these people expect would happen?
I certainly pray and wish all the best for the people being tormented by Hurricane Katrina.
At the same time, I have to wonder about the wisdom of building a large city below sea level. What did these people expect would happen?
It’s my understanding that New Orleans was actually founded because it had a distinct area of high ground near the Mississippi. It was early 20th century engineering inventiveness that resulted in the massive outward push into the flood plains. God bless the engineers.
I see… Did the engineers make the land lower, or did the city just expand to areas that were already low?
Expanded to low areas. Some famous engineer designed a bilge pumping system. I guess it’s like what they did to Boston, only below sea level with levees (both natural and manmade).
I wonder if draining ground water can cause land to sink… Well, we’ll see how long Texas holds out. :)
Well, I don’t really know “what they did to Boston”, so that doesn’t really help me understand it much. Thank you very much for the effort, though.
And there is a lot of ground water, and it’s been being taken out of the ground for many many generations. It’s not very high on my list of worries.
Oh, I’m sorry. Most of Boston used to be swampland. Those crazy civil and mechanical engineers drained it and made it habitable.
I don’t think we have a ground water problem up here, or even in Louisiana, but in the midwest and in Texas it’s a real concern. The Texas state government has commissioned many studies to examine the depletion of the regional aquifers due to irrigation and to suggest sensible recommendations and regulations.