On the understanding the scale of a project that makes New Orleans waterproof, post-Katrina our government did send help, not only in materials but engineers as well (which isn’t really special, post-February ‘53 your country had send a lot of help too). They helped with getting the gaps in the levees closed and had a look into the whole situation. There was (is?) a whole lot of room for improvements, but it’s mainly the finances that are an obstacle.

As for a point of reference, the Deltawerken were estimated to cost 3.3 billion Guldens. Or in modern day currency 1.49 billion Euro’s. And that was back in 1957 and only the original cost estimate. A lot of cost overruns happened overtime, especially to lessen the environmental impacts of the project. I for one really don’t want to know what the total costs were in the end, I still recall the news from around 1988 or so when the stormvloedkering came into operation, basically a “levee” with gates which can be closed under more extreme circumstances and thereby preserving the salt-water environment behind it. It was a bit like a moonlanding, except that we can take a car, drive up there and see what it’s like.

The principal difference between the USA and Nederland is that we have a small, densely populated country a lot of which is reclaimed from the sea. Or simply stated, we don’t have anywhere else to go to. To me, the current situation of New Orleans seems to be a wait-and-see approach, with the government silently hoping that far less people will return to the disaster area, so that when a plan is finally approved there will be less city area to protect. Then there’s also the natural situation that needs consideration – it might well be that not all of New Orleans can be protected. You might build levees that can withstand 99.999% of the worst that nature might throw at you, but what will happen in time? The buildings won’t stop sinking and that problem will have to be tackled along with the levees.

Then again, we also had a documentary wherein it was shown how the current levees where constructed. Back in the 13th century we build levees that were far more advanced than what basically amounts to a compact wall of sand, so even if a near-complete waterproof plan is too costly to implement, there are at least alternatives that might help save some lives or properties, provided a real big category-5 doesn’t hit too soon.

JFH

Thank you for your insight and thanks for your support.

Best wishes to you and your family over there in the Netherlands.

Thank you for your perspective on the levee issue. I think no one really understand the potential scale of the levee project — most especially our current administration.

Welcome JFH!

The Netherlands seems to do very well with sea walls despite North Atlantic storms and is the product of (gasp) liberal politicians who actually took care of the needs of the people of the country instead of reciting platitudes and going to war with everyone.

Comment by bones — August 27, 2006 @ 6:59 am

Thank you Bones, but I would like to ament one tiny part. Extensive projects such as the Deltawerken are generally started with as broad a consensus as possible. The sheer time (decades) and expenditure (astronomical) involved in the realization of those constructions guanrantees that whichever coalition was governing when the project was fired up, will not be in charge half-way or near the end. Without a broad consensus these kinds of projects are in jeopardy of being aborted prematurely and likely consequences such as a repeat of the Februari 1953 Watersnoodramp are too horrible to comtemplate.

In essence one can view the succesful completion of our seabarriers as triumph over short-term thinking, or political pragmatism. (Imagine election rethoric like “There hasn’t been a storm in 4 years! Let’s abandon this, cut costs and lower taxes!”)

Katrina was a tragedy, a nightmare. Although I hope that New Orleans will be spared similar ordeals, especially in the near future, at the moment I feel saddened that I’m not surprised that the city ill-prepared.

Having said all that, in case anyone wonders why a non-American would regularly visit this site in particular, there’s recent history on one hand and then there’s the fact that I have voted liberal for my entire life. You guys have my full support and I really hope you manage to put the first dents in the dragon that needs slaying come november.

Yes they did, andrew, and as soon as GWB opened his mouth, the people of NO should have realized they were screwed.

All parties have known this for many years, or should have known. It should not be surprising to anyone familiar with the city that decisions of decades can be corrected in 9 months.

Aside from the problems of correcting infrastructure that was not the best in a country with a less than stellar record (read, big dig, etc., where even gold plated projects have failed), I would agree with you that the humanitarian response was very ill treatment indeed and was not befitting an administration in washington that considers itself the leaders of a world superpower.

I am not convinced, however, that the levees could be up to the level of pre-katrina (i.e., when they failed), in the amount of time since elapsed. Could they, I concede, be in better shape than they are now? Well, the president and the corps did make some strong promises in that regard, didn’t they.

Vote for new direction – vote Democrat in November

Dont you think it is time for a drastic change? Like you know, if you had dirty underwear, you would perhaps change them, dont you think?