National Geographic article about New Orleans (2 Viewers)

[Taurus]

i just think that's an important message to get out there to the national/international audience.

That people in New Orleans are not just a bunch of fools who had the power to build/repair their own levees, and just diddled around.

That the clearance to build in low areas came with the ringing endorsement of city zoning administrators, planners, and investors, with developers "laughing all the way to the bank" as this article does point out.

A lot of things i see make me really mad, but i force myself to at least skim them just so i know what people around me are being fed about New Orleans. i need to know what points are going to be brought up, so that i am ready to refute them.

If people in Pennsylvania and Virginia and California read stuff like this and remember what it was like for them in their "safe" areas when they were washed out by a flood, and consider whether THEY wanted to pick up and take their chances in a "safer" place (as if anyplace is "safe"), it might get some understanding out there.

If everybody just packed up and moved to a 'safe' place, Salem, Oregon would have a population of 300 million.

 

[Broadmoor74]

If everybody just packed up and moved to a 'safe' place, Salem, Oregon would have a population of 300 million.

If not for the threat of tsunamis in the Pacific Northwest.

http://sarvis.dogami.state.or.us/sub/news&events/TsunamiWorkshop2.25.05.pdf

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

What about those two paragraphs is not true?

We are not just bumping the levees up a little bit higher and calling it a day. There is a whole lot more going on than that both in terms of flood protection and coastal restoration. A lot of it is still on the ground floor, but it is happening, which is vastly different than the past 40 years. Abolishing the levee board fiefdoms and replacing them with real engineers is just a small example. Elsewhere, the article implies that the entire city is below sea level, a myth that will not die - even in National Geographic!

Perhaps I'm just overly sensitive to the subject, but the entire article seems to suggest that's its a fool's errand and that the work going on is just window dressing.

Personally, I think south LA is better off than South Florida or other "low lying areas" - like NYC and Washington, DC. We at least have the capacity, the will and (maybe) the money to actually create new land around us. When Miami goes under, that's it.

 

[gaminerie]

We are not just bumping the levees up a little bit higher and calling it a day. There is a whole lot more going on than that both in terms of flood protection and coastal restoration. A lot of it is still on the ground floor, but it is happening, which is vastly different than the past 40 years. Abolishing the levee board fiefdoms and replacing them with real engineers is just a small example. Elsewhere, the article implies that the entire city is below sea level, a myth that will not die - even in National Geographic!

Perhaps I'm just overly sensitive to the subject, but the entire article seems to suggest that's its a fool's errand and that the work going on is just window dressing.

Personally, I think south LA is better off than South Florida or other "low lying areas" - like NYC and Washington, DC. We at least have the capacity, the will and (maybe) the money to actually create new land around us. When Miami goes under, that's it.

If you go on to read the rest of the article (rather than taking the two grabber paragraphs out of context) it is clearly stated that there is high ground along the Mississippi River, and the Esplanade, Metairie, and Gentilly ridges.

Then this on page 4 of the online link

A 1995 flood following a rainstorm that dumped 14 inches (35 centimeters) on the neighborhood led to a multimillion-dollar drainage improvement project, completed in 2002, that drastically decreased flooding. Even during Katrina, with its 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rainfall, Broadmoor only flooded to the lawns and was pumped dry before the levees breached and the real flooding began. It was proof of what good engineering can do, says McBride, himself an engineer. "You can't design a perfectly flood-proof home," he says. "But if you get adequate levee protection and adequate drainage, I think people will return."

which indicates that if infrastructure is in good working order (as was implicitly promised by the people who taxed to build it), even 12 feet below sea level is doable.

This point was further proven not long ago here, in Washington, when the lower levels of the Justice Department and IRS buildings flooded due to an unexpected rain. "How you like us now?" i said to more than one complainer around here.

In fact, i see paragraphs like this

Old ways die hard in the bayou. Even after the dramatic failure of the shell sand in the levees, independent investigators found corps contractors using the same material to rebuild them. Only after the discovery was made public did the corps barge in yellowish clay from Mississippi to cap the levees. And parts of the new structures still have no buffer against erosion.

Kemp points to a new section of bare levee right next to the channel and shakes his head. "This is a recipe for disaster," he mutters. "The waves are going to break right on that thing. If a big storm comes in here this year, it's gone." Even sections of the levees newly capped with clay are already eroding from rainfall, Kemp says. In fact, during a recent inspection, engineering professor Bob Bea, who helped lead the UC Berkeley team that investigated the levee failures, found multiple chinks in the city's hurricane armor, from newly eroded levees along MRGO to Katrina-battered floodwalls that had not been repaired.

as shining a light on how the Corps is trying to shortchange New Orleans YET AGAIN. even after Katrina. which is so obscene i don't think there is a WORD for what it is.

The Corps built the levees and was tasked with maintaining them. Then this happened. Now they are using the same maintenance processes (at federal expense, which should make Joe and Jane National-Geographic-Reader care somewhat) which didn't exactly hold up the first time? isn't that called insanity or something?

Who is holding the Corps accountable?

This information needs to be out there, and articles like this need to be taken as a whole and not read selectively to pick out the parts which might offend us if they stood by themselves.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

I'm not reading selectively. I said: "Elsewhere, the article implies that the entire city is below sea level." From the article:

THE REALITY REMAINS DAUNTING for those trying to rebuild, or trying to decide whether to come back at all. The risk of catastrophic flooding is rising year by year, with no end in sight—in no small part because the city is sinking.

Even before it was covered by millions of tons of floodwater, New Orleans had sunk well below sea level, because of the draining and compacting of the backswamp and the pumping of groundwater.

I decided not to cut and paste every paragraph that had something demonstrably false or (IMO) horribly slanted in it, but, as I said, my overall read on the article was that it made us look like short-sighted idiots tilting at windmills and costing everyone else a lot of money. ("YET MANY ARE DOING JUST THAT, regardless of what the experts say, with a typical New Orleans cocktail of denial, faith in the levees, and 100-proof love of home." What all these Yankees makin' such a ruckus about?)

As for the Corps, they were in front of the City Council yesterday getting asked pointed questions by Stacy Head and Shelley Midura over why they can't provide better protection at the intersection of IHNC/MRGO. Is that going to solve our problems? I don't know. Is it drastically different than the old way of doing things? Yes it is.

Who is holding the Corps accountable? We all are. The T-P has a front page article 5-7 days a week. Sometimes the Corps has a good answer, sometimes they dont (I seem to recall the T-P covering the clay in the levees thing last year. I do know that the Corps is struggling to find enough quality "fill" for all the projects they have going on).

Anyway, I hope more people take what you took from the article and not what I did.

 

[gaminerie]

There IS denial. If people lived in constant fear of something bad happening, that's unreasonable.
There IS faith in the levees. see above.
There IS a 100-proof love of home, of a strength that exists in EVERY community to which people feel deep roots.


i want as much nationwide media as possible making the point that the issue of the levees is as much or MORE an issue of the Corps' rampant mismanagement than anything else. Outsiders need to stop laying blame solely on the stereotype of the crooked Louisianan.

The levee districts are gone now, but even if they had practiced the oversight that Head and Midura now appear to be practicing ... the funding for the Corps comes from the American taxpayer, and the accountability is to the American taxpayer.

The misconception that New Orleans got zillions of federal dollars in infrastructure cash after Katrina, and it is being wasted SOLELY by New Orleanians, is untrue and needs to be done away with. Congress sends the Corps money for this project, and there they were, trying to do the same thing now that ruined the project before.

i am so encouraged by the actions of Fielkow, Head, Midura, and other newcomers. i do not have rose-colored glasses on, such that i think there's not still plenty of graft happening.

i just feel like where graft happens, the Feds figure no one will ask many questions because, as Steve Inskeep condescendingly SNEERED last week when speaking to the new tax assessor, "hey, it's New Orleans." You know, like those New Orleanians are all greasy thieves.

There SHOULD be more articles which lay out in relative detail WHERE things went wrong. IMO, it was NOT ethical to sell flood-prone land to eager buyers in the earlier part of the century, and encourage them to build and/or move there ... but homes are there now, and if an area like Broadmoor can be reasonably served by an adequately designed and maintained pumping station, then it should be.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

There IS denial. If people lived in constant fear of something bad happening, that's unreasonable.
There IS faith in the levees. see above.
There IS a 100-proof love of home, of a strength that exists in EVERY community to which people feel deep roots.

I think you lost me.
Do think that when Joe America reads that paragraph in the article, he's going to say, "Hey,, who cares what the 'experts' think? I want to help those plucky folks in New Orleans that are in total denial about their pathetic levees! Where do I send the check?"

You think this article is HELPFUL to our cause? By making us look like we have our head's buried in the sand (actually, whiskey bottle)?

I'm all for spreading the word about what happened and why. Just dont paint us as idiots.

And, IMO, reflexively torching the Corps at every turn does nothing but erode people's confidence in the recovery.

What I want is BALANCED reporting. That's all.

 

[gaminerie]

I think you lost me.
Do think that when Joe America reads that paragraph in the article, he's going to say, "Hey,, who cares what the 'experts' think? I want to help those plucky folks in New Orleans that are in total denial about their pathetic levees! Where do I send the check?"

You think this article is HELPFUL to our cause? By making us look like we have our head's buried in the sand (actually, whiskey bottle)?

I'm all for spreading the word about what happened and why. Just dont paint us as idiots.

And, IMO, reflexively torching the Corps at every turn does nothing but erode people's confidence in the recovery.

What I want is BALANCED reporting. That's all.

What would you have considered to be BALANCED reporting, that wouldn't be a fabrication or inaccurately rosy?

i mean, who's missing here, and what would you have wanted them to say? We can write to Natl Geo and point it out. Seriously. They will be doing follow-ups and in the follow-ups, whoever's missing from this piece can be contacted.

i am sure at least one letter to the editor will arise from this article.

The worst thing that can happen until the ship is righted, is apathy. The fact that New Orleans is still getting cover stories when there are plenty of other, newer issues going on is good IMO.

It reminds whoever sees it, even if they don't buy the magazine or read the article, that this happened to Americans and any American could be next.

 

[Broadmoor74]

a typical New Orleans cocktail of denial, faith in the levees, and 100-proof love of home.

Part of the problem with this phrase is not in it meaning so much, when we get right down to it. Two drinking references in one sentence. It fuels a stereotypical belief that New Orleanians are constantly drunk with their own alcoholic non-chalance regarding politics, geography, and culture. We all care. Few hear us.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Ways it coud've been better

1) they could've gotten their facts right in about a dozen different places, on everything from all of the City being below sea level to their assertion that congress has not acted re: MR-GO. Just some basic journalism.

2) the could've presented alternative viewpoints thanto Drs. Bea and Van Hjeerdan, aside from the one guy they throw in at the very end, described as the "rare" scientist that doesnt think we are hosed. They exist.

3) Avoid loaded words. "... another such disaster is inevitable, and nothing short of a massive and endless national commitment can prevent it.

4) Don't lead with the guy that wants to sell us to Disney and move all the people out.

5) Explain exactly what is being done for flood protection, rather than just blithely (and incorrectly) calling it "bumping up the levees a little bit higher," and implying we havent learned a thing.

If these things are too much to ask, then just leave the topic alone.

 

[gaminerie]

But we're not responsible for the levees, Congress deemed. The Corps is. i'm still waiting for any solid indication that the Corps has learned ANYTHING. That's not based on a limited exposure to outlets like National Geographic et al, either.

It is important to separate the actions of the Corps from the will of the community. Much of the community has learned a LOT from this. i agree with you that THAT could be played up.

Infrastructure maintenance is massive and it is endless. Hurricanes are inevitable. If you can figure out some way to stop or divert one, then i want to get in on the ground floor of that operation

We had a decent protection in the form of a few hundred miles of coastline. It's just as important to put that back as it is to be focused on levees. If i was going to change anything about the article, it would be that i'd mention that a little more.

The guy that wants to sell us to Disney is obviously quoted for shock value. Journalism 101.

What IS being done for flood protection besides pumping stations and levees?

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

The guy that wants to sell us to Disney is obviously quoted for shock value. Journalism 101.

And a perfect reminder of why I hate journalists.


"Massive" is a relative (but loaded) term. Compared to our spending in Iraq, the necessary funding for proper hurricane/flood protection is not "massive," it is barely a blip on the radar. And it does not need to be "endless" - especially if our share of oil royalties actually comes to pass.

Bottom line is that they led off the article making it sound as if there is no way in hell anything good can possibly occur down here. I resent the hell out of it.


As for the corps, in addition to levees and pump stations, there are all kinds of plans on the boards for structures further out (such at the IHNC/MRGO intersection, as mentioned earlier), and collaboration with the State's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority on Cat 5 projects and coastal restoration. There are also some local groups looking at ways to better wall of sections of the city into compartments so that a flood in one area does not take down the whole city.

There is a lot going on. National Geographic chose to ignore the parts that didnt make us look like blinkered boobs.

 

[Goatman Saint]

I may be a fool here, but Karina did not flood New Orleans. The mistakes made by the corps of engineers and shoddy upkeep of the levees that broke flooded the city. This falls on the Federal Government. Of course the coastal erosion (Corps of engineers and oil companies) is also to blame on the long term issue of depleting coastline.

As far as moving the shipping 150 miles upstream, isn't there something to do with the riverbed and lack of clearance even with dredging that would make that impossible?

 

[johnnyd]

I have heard Garland say (I am paraphrasing) that we are a colony of the USA and like every colony we are exploited for our mineral wealth and our infrastructure is a second thought.

"Screw this! They're lying! The President's lying! The rich fat cats that are drowning you will do it again and again and again…and when you complain, they blame Blacks and Jews and immigrants. Then they push your kids under. I say, kick ‘em in the *** and take your rightful share!"
--Huey Long, 1927

Secession!: The Opening Salvo

 

[Inkspot47]

I thought this paragraph was interesting. It seems to say that the corps didnt want the levee system in the first place.

The floodwalls along the city's major drainage canals were a classic example of the shortcomings. The corps didn't want to build most of them. Initially it planned to block storm surge with giant barriers across the eastern inlets of Lake Pontchartrain, beef up the levees along the southern lakeshore, and erect massive floodgates to keep high water out of the canals. Environmental groups, concerned about impacts on the lake and its wetlands, blocked the plan in court. The corps dropped the barriers and switched to a system that would rely on higher lake levees and floodgates. State and local officials—who were required to pick up nearly a third of the ballooning tab—balked at the cost of the gates. They also feared that closing the gates could actually cause flooding, as rainwater piled up in the canals. City leaders pushed instead for floodwalls along the canals. The groups remained at loggerheads until 1992, when Congress passed a water resources act that forced the corps to do it the city's way.