Tuesday...this and that

Like many people, I spent a bit of time this weekend watching the continuing hurricane coverage and I found myself practically in tears several times. And judging from the coverage this weekend, the finger pointing has begun in earnest as to who dropped the ball as far as emergency contingency plans and rescue operations. From what I can tell, there's plenty of blame to go around and despite what the Mayor of New Orleans is screaming the blame begins at the city level and extends all the way up to the highest reaches of the federal level. So why didn't the city itself have a better Emergency Contingency Plan? It appears that the city hadn't even considered the possiblility of being hit with a Category 4 or 5 hurricane, and therefore had no contingency plan for evacuating its citizens. Bah...enough of that. I do think at the appropriate time...which is not now...this disaster should be studied to learn how to avoid a similar catastrophe in the future. One thing was certainly apparent though from this disaster. What if this had been a terrorist attack of the same magnitude which would have required a large-scale evacuation? It's scary to even think about.

We, meaning my environmental consulting company, got some news this morning that I have mixed feelings about. It seems that we're going to have the opportunity to provide environmental investigation and assessment services in New Orleans once all the initial clean-up is completed. On one hand, we appreciate any opportunity for work since our company is still so young, but on the other hand I'm not thrilled that this opportunity is as a result of such a catastrophe which adversely affected so many lives. I realize though that we provide an important service, so if we can identify areas of suburface contamination that need to be cleaned up, then I guess we will have contributed in some small way.

Before any rebuilding takes place within the city, I think that there needs to be some discussion as to the feasibility of rebuilding in some of the more flood sensitive areas. Let's face it, all of New Orleans was constructed on the Mississippi Delta which is nothing more than a huge flood plain. With the emphasis on FLOOD Plain! Human resourcefulness and ingenuity are generally wonderful things, but too often our ingenuity can result in a certain amount of arrogance concerning Mother Nature. I think that some of that human arrogance is in evidence with the city of New Orleans. The city was built on a delta and a good portion of the city is below sea level, so to maximize the human occupation and usage of the delta, levees were built to keep the flood waters out. At the same time, engineers decided that the natural geological processes of the Mississippi interferred with commerce and shipping at the mouth of the river. So the Army Corp of Engineers decided to channelize a good portion of the river near the mouth and beyond, and began dumping sediment farther out and deeper into the Gulf rather than letting natural geological processes create natural barrier islands and/or deposit the sediment along the coastline which would add material to the delta. In the last several years, the Mississippi Delta has undergone lots of erosion as a result of human interference with the natural depositional processes. Barrier islands provide protection to the natural coastline during storm events and barrier islands would have helped protect New Orleans to a degree. How much is uncertain, but any little bit would have helped. Additionally, a healthy coastline consisting of lots of natural sand dunes and sea grasses in front of the levee system would have also provided some protection to the levee system. How much protection is not known, but any little bit would have helped.

The point is that our interference with natural geologic processes as well as our insistence to live along coastlines prone to flooding and other natural disasters are in direct conflict. People who insist on continuing to live in these areas need to be educated to the fact that despite what engineers may say, Mother Nature cannot be conquered...she will always rule supreme. I love the coastline myself and would consider living there, but I also recognize the risk. At some time in the future, it is possible that another catastrophic hurricane will hit New Orleans and the city will flood and people will lose their homes and some their lives. This needs to be made clear to those that insist on living in such areas. Hurricanes and flooding are a fact of life.

I'd like to see us move to working in harmony with natural processes rather than trying to overcome and conquer natural processes. Citizens need to be made aware of the risks of living in a coastal environment. Complacency and the over-reliance on technology to protect lives and property during a natural disaster also need to be examined. In fact, look at how many folks were so attached to their property that they refused to leave at all despite being surrounded by contaminated flood water. In flood prone areas, protect citizens as best as possible and have a good workable emergency contigency plan which includes an evacuation plan in the event that protective measures are not enough. And there will come another time whether it's New Orleans or another city where protective measures will not be enough. Food for thought....I'll step off my soap box now...or in my case...my rock...