Rita: Texas vs. Louisiana... thoughts

[donnap99]

Texas or Louisiana... neither is a good choice.

I'm posting this in Topical Climates because what I'm going to say is going to raise some eyebrows (like it did me when I first heard it). But after thinking about it for a while, it does make some sense...

I commented that Rita can go anywhere, as long as it's not New Orleans. He commented that maybe it *should* go to New Orleans, since they are already mostly evacuated and there can't be much more in the way of property damage that hasn't already been done.

I think he has a point... 1 city already severely damaged getting hit again vs. 2 cities being severely damaged and thousands more potentially losing their homes and being displaced... What do you think??


DonnaP99

[officeguru]

Well if there was a choice in the matter... I'd rather it reverse course and disipate in the midst of the ocean.  

However...

if New Orleans were to get hit again, could it sustain another major hit?  Could the damage end up so severe that rebuilding/recovery effort are just not possible?

if a city in Texas gets hit, are there resources to send to help with any rescue efforts?  Would they pull them from New Orleans?  Then what about the needs in that area?

Tough call either way... I guess we'll just have to see what Mother Nature chooses.



As a side note:  I lived in Jacksonville, FL as a child when Hurricane David occured.  I was about 8 yrs old, and my view of things was that it was just a really bad storm.  I remember us being without power and watching from our windows as Dad and the neighbors were out helping push cars out of the street (we lived on a fairly main road) and the torenchial downpour of rain was unreal and watching the trees and telephone wires sway was unbelievable and left.  And the days after the storm - the main thing I remember is kids floating down the side streets in the neighborhood in inner tubes and rafts.

[smssilva]

There is a point there, although to me it sounds like a really bad thing to wish for.

It sounds like an articule I read of a southern town that refuse to receive Katrina refugees (90% black in a 90 % white community). They said although they understood their drama, they felt they could not help them.

[spitfire78]

I just don't get that kind of thinking!!!  How can people be that way?  People are people, regardless of the color of their skin, hair, eyes, etc.  I don't know what else to do about it, so I think I'll say a prayer (or 2 or 3!) for the people in that town - sounds like they need it.

[countrigal]

I'm with those who are thinking that if we have to have it hit land... then let it hit an area that is already hit and no rebuilding and all has started in.

I also go further and think that if it does hit New Orleans, then it should destroy it enough that they don't rebuild and let it go back more natural.  A part of the reason that they were at so much risk is because they changed the natural flow of the Mississippi, drying up some of the land which has traditionally been swampland and which offered protection to New Orleans by slowing down the surge from the hurricanes.  Also, this drying out of the land, and the fact that New Orleans for the most part was traditionally swampland, is what has caused the city to fall so far below sea level.  It wasn't that way when they started to build the city, but that is the way it grew up over the years.  I watched a special on TV the other day about this too, and they had a good example of what has occurred in that area.  Think of a sponge, and how it looks when it's swollen with water, how thick it is.  Then as it dries, it shrinks and compacts.  That is what the land has done there, starting out as the thick sponge and then drying out over time and shrinking.  Then add all the buildings, skyscrappers, etc, and that compacts the sponge even more.

I think that New Orleans would be New Orleans anywhere it is rebuilt.  Most of it is an attitude and the personality of the people of the city, and those can be transferred from one location to another.  Rebuild the city, but rebuild it somewhere else, and with the idea of not drying out the sponge that you build on.

Anyway... that's my idea.  I know it's not a popular one, but there it is.

CountriGal
Peer Moderator

[spitfire78]

I think it makes a lot of sense!

[donnap99]

I believe you have the right idea, the more I think of it.

DonnaP99

[raindance]

I agree with you, CG.  

We have a similar thing here in England.  Developers build dwelling places on river flood plains and people then are surprised that their properties flood!  In previous times, people avoided building on flood plains for that very reason.  

Raindance