Is opening of Morganza a "natural" disaster?

flood board

we will get government relief but its a disaster that looks natural but is brought on by human actions.

I say yes, that area would still flood regardless of whether Morganza is opened. (At least from what I have read. )

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that area would still flood regardless of whether Morganza is opened

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This is what I have read to happen as well. So this is a natural disaster, made worse by man for the people located in the Ach Basin.

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I really hope you mean NOLA and not BR

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This thread moved from the poli board to here. The NOLA/BR debate will necessitate yet another move.

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So....Is the disaster because of man's actions or is the agriculture and residency in between floods a result of man's actions?

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Both. Baton Rouge AND New Orleans have a river for commerce because of man's actions. The Corps has "tamed" the River through levees and the control structures. If it had not, much of the land that will be flooded would already be under water, and the two largest cities in Louisiana would have a small bayou running past them rather than a major river.

The real question is whether there is some better way to do it. No one has thought of one yet.

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agdoctor

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Thanks for that explanation. It's logical, yet it adds whole new facets to the debate.

In the natural versus man-made flood debate, the continuing NOLA/Katrina levee failure controversy complicates the issue even further. And I would think that some people in Congress will consider that controversy in any ruling on the Morganza proposal.

And would the Corps be opening to gates to activate the floodway for which they were built, or to prevent the failure of their structure itself?

The phenomenon that causes the river to rise and fall during different seasons is natural. In the past, there were no levees and the flooding would happen when necessary. The whole thing wasn't conducive to shipping traffic. So they built the levees and Eads built some jeddies to cut away at the sediment blocking the delta and they did what was necessary to support shipping traffic The levees reduced the frequency of floods but they increased the damage they can do because they force the water up instead of out. They eventually fail and do more harm to people that were encouraged to live there by the levees existence. It doesn't matter. It's the system we got. We need to figure out how to work with it.

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No actually that is wrong, if not for mans actions the property that is going to flood probably woulldnt usuable anyway so mans actions have allowed them use of this resource all along this is a natural disaster

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False. This land would be protected with a higher levee at potato levee that allows water into the forebay. The shortened potato levee would be at the higher elevation that is north and south of this land to protect from floods. The potato levee is designed to let water into the forebay and eventually thru the spillway. The spillway is man made just like the levees. There is no significant elevation difference in the land that is in the spillway compared to land north and south of it.