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Started By
Message
LSU professor highlights problems with Louisiana’s flood preparedness
Posted on 9/4/18 at 8:43 am
Posted on 9/4/18 at 8:43 am
quote:
LSU professor highlights problems with Louisiana’s flood preparedness
LINK
Heavy rainfall and flooding devastated Louisiana in August 2016, causing 13 deaths and an estimated $8.7 billion in property damage. LSU geography professor Craig Colten believes the state is still not prepared should a similar event happen again.
Louisiana is assumed to be over-prepared for another flood with the vast amount of money the state spends on emergency preparedness and the abundance of volunteers after disasters such as the Cajun Navy. But Colten said Louisiana needs to invest more in mitigations, which are the ways states lessen damage of storms through good drainage, land use and levees.
quote:
After the 2016 floods, there was a spike in public concern and demand for storm mitigation. In April, Louisiana received the $343 million necessary to complete a long-awaited project, the Comite River Diversion Canal. Bureaucratic red tape has delayed funding for the project since 1984. The project would divert flood waters from populated areas, but Colten said there is still much more to be done.
I don't think there's any way to design a completely flood-proof city that can handle the kind of rainfall that Baton Rouge saw in 2016 or that Houston saw in 2017, but he's got a point. We aren't taking steps to improve our infrastructure or land use.
1 - How are people not burning the state capital to the ground now since the Diversion Canal project still isn't in place? EBR, Livingston, and Ascension have been contributing tax dollars to this for 18 years now, and have nothing to show for it but flooded homes and businesses. Maybe we should get a refund on those taxes? We still have no canal or retention lakes along the Comite/Amite river basin.
2 - Are people in Louisiana ready for more dense housing on the few higher pieces of land in the region? Are they ready to gentrify, improve, or invest in older places that are mostly protected from flooding? Places like Shenandoah, Broadmoor, Mid City, and parts of north Baton Rouge avoided the worst of the flooding. Shoe Creek is being developed in Central on land that stayed dry, but a lot of development is still occurring in risky areas - especially in Ascension and Livingston.
3 - Wouldn't the risk of storm surge in Ascension Parish and lower Livingston increase significantly if a levee is ever constructed around LaPlace, Norco, or even parts of the north shore? Storm Surge is displaced into those areas by levees that protect parts of Jefferson and Orleans parish today. Wouldn't additional levees displace surge waters into the north shore and up the Amite river basin into Livingston and Ascension (and possibly even as far north as southern EBR and LSU)?
This post was edited on 9/4/18 at 8:45 am
16
Posted on 9/4/18 at 8:45 am to goofball
Building a city below sea level is probably problem #1.
Posted on 9/4/18 at 8:48 am to Eli Goldfinger
Baton Rouge is below sea level?
Posted on 9/4/18 at 8:48 am to Eli Goldfinger
quote:
Building a city below sea level is probably problem #1.
better take that one up with Bienville then, champ.
Posted on 9/4/18 at 8:49 am to goofball
quote:
How are people not burning the state capital to the ground
Frickin liberals. So tolerant.
Posted on 9/4/18 at 8:51 am to Eli Goldfinger
quote:
Building a city below sea level is probably problem #1.
It's impossible to keep cities above sea level from flooding when they get 30" of rain in 24 hours or when a Hurricane funnels storm surge into all drainage outlets. Not building cities isn't an answer.
But we probably should develop more carefully and invest in our future by building more flood protection.
Posted on 9/4/18 at 8:54 am to goofball
quote:
EBR, Livingston, and Ascension have been contributing tax dollars to this for 18 years now, and have nothing to show for it but flooded homes and businesses. Maybe we should get a refund on those taxes?
OP's got jokes
Posted on 9/4/18 at 8:58 am to goofball
The problem with flood preparedness is diminishing marginal returns. It’s a risk management problem. The comite is a disaster, but outside of that it is all about protecting what you own and no one at the end of the day cares about their neighbor.
Posted on 9/4/18 at 9:00 am to Eli Goldfinger
quote:It's one thing to not read a linked article. Not even bothering to read the post to which you're replying is taking laziness to a whole other level. Impressive.
Building a city below sea level is probably problem #1.
Posted on 9/4/18 at 9:02 am to Zach Lee To Amp Hill
quote:
better take that one up with Bienville then, champ.
To be fair he founded New Orleans on land above sea level. The french quarter didnt flood during Katrina.
Posted on 9/4/18 at 9:02 am to Eli Goldfinger
quote:
Building a city below sea level is probably problem #1.
Houston is below sea level?
Posted on 9/4/18 at 9:03 am to NYNolaguy1
quote:
To be fair he founded New Orleans on land above sea level. The french quarter didnt flood during Katrina.
I wonder if New Orleans will embrace more dense housing in the areas that didn't flood. Much of those areas are historic districts where new, vertical development isn't really allowed.
Posted on 9/4/18 at 9:04 am to Eli Goldfinger
quote:
Building a city below sea level is probably problem #1.
what a fricking idiot.
i mean the Google search involved in participating in this discussion took me a mere 2 seconds. "Baton Rouge Sea Level"
This post was edited on 9/4/18 at 9:05 am
Posted on 9/4/18 at 9:05 am to goofball
Part of it is putting blacktop and concrete over everything, which speeds up drainage. Idk if they've changed building codes, but there are definitely ways to slow water drainage while still preventing flooding. They just weren't in place
Posted on 9/4/18 at 9:14 am to goofball
Scruffy highlights problems with Louisiana’s flood preparedness:
The state is run by dumbasses.
The state is run by dumbasses.
Posted on 9/4/18 at 9:15 am to Hammertime
quote:
Part of it is putting blacktop and concrete over everything, which speeds up drainage.
Impervious materials increases stormwater runoff flow and reduces infiltration into the ground. Q=CiA...
Posted on 9/4/18 at 9:20 am to Scruffy
quote:
Scruffy highlights problems with Louisiana’s flood preparedness:
The state is run by dumbasses.
Scruffy should know that Louisiana residents demonstrate their tolerance for stupidity almost every time they elect someone to office.
Posted on 9/4/18 at 9:21 am to NYNolaguy1
Well, you can put ripples or rough up smooth surfaces. Making drainage ditches not a straight shot helps as well. There are a number of things that can be done, but haven't because of ignorance
Posted on 9/4/18 at 9:23 am to goofball
I'd love to offer my engineering services to the state if they would pay anywhere remotely close to the ballpark of what private sector pays around here.
Posted on 9/4/18 at 9:26 am to goofball
quote:
Bureaucratic red tape
Answers all these questions.
Louisiana keeps these a-hole do nothing thieves in office, and the state continues to be at the bottom of every list.
They fund bullshite projects to their brother in laws construction firm like those stupid interstate on ramp lights, while every meaningful project is sideline while they fight over who is going to frick who over and steal the money.
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