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Sept. 27, 2005 Let's go over this one more time. Ever since the French first settled New Orleans there has been flooding and there have been levees built to stop that flooding. When the Corps of Engineers decided to reroute the Mississippi River was when the real trouble started to...well, to fix one problem they created a new one. All of the lower part of Louisiana is a delta and a delta does one of two things: it grows or it dies. THE LEVEE SYSTEM cut off the delta's ability to grow; hence the vanishing wetlands...the New Orleans newspaper has done a series of articles on this very subject and it's not hard to understand (or find the series online). It's not the melting of the poplar icecaps or other signs of global warming. It's just man's need to fix a flooding problem on the Mississippi River. The fix caused the rejuvenating silt (mud, dirt flowing down from the Mississippi's various tributaries) not to be redeposited along the delta that is lower Louisiana. Gee what would happen to Egypt if they suddenly put levees all along it? As for the Corps of Engineers wanting all that money to rebuild the levees up to cat 5 strength---that would have been a 20 year project...it's like building a dam or a tunnel...it can't be done over night. And then there are the politicos of New Orleans...the ones on the levee board for instance...the ones that bought a yacht, a casino, etc. And let's not forget the general state of denial most of New Orleans was always in. There won't be a hurricane here...we have voodoo that keeps the storms away. That was the standard line you'd heard on the local New Orleans news every time there was the potential for a storm to come its way. There were always more important things to spend the levee money on than the levees. Oh and you can't fix a broken levee overnight either. You can patch with a temporary fix to keep some of the water out...but the major fix of the breach will take months at the least. I've always been strangely attracted and repelled by New Orleans. It's hot there...hotter than Gulfport or Mobile where I grew up. Mardi Gras is a constant in some peoples minds. Hey it is in Mobile too if you are a member of one of the Mystic societies(the ones who do up the floats and have the different parades). In fact Mobile was really the birthplace of Mardi Gras but most people don't know that...or know how much it costs to create those floats. After years living in Mobile, never caring about the Mystic Societies, my husband was actually invited to join one. They told him that it cost each family that joined 5,000 dollars...that's for the float for the parade folks. But I digress. I was talking about the heat and how it might affect the brain. Back before a/c people in the north did tend to think there was something wrong with those of us who lived in the Deep South. We seemed slow and lazy. Heck, you had to be slow or risk heat stroke. Anyway It changes how a body views the world and like I said it's just hotter in New Orleans. I sometimes wake up nights and think how bad the mold smell must be now. ------------ About the author Lee Caldwell-Owens: Graduate of #Artbell channel on Efnet IRC. Has a BS in History and English with a minor in Women's Studies and if she had completed her thesis, would have a Graduate Degree in English. Likes to dabble in writing about the paranormal. Email: zommbywu00f@aol.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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