Southern FL is the next NOLA if we get hit with a big hurricane this year.

[Cyrano]

Lake Okeechobee is smack in the center of south central FL, just north of the everglades. Hurricane season starts June 1st.

The lake is 30 mile wide, 33 miles long and is surrounded by a an earthen dike. The army corps of engineers has determined that there are weak spots in the dike and they are trying to fill them in. If a part of the dike goes, it will destroy the everglades and the death toll will be in the thousands.

None of this is news. It's been known for a long time now, but King George's brother, Prince Jeb, hasn't done a damn thing about it. I guess, like his imbecile brother, he believes in the power of prayer.

Who could ever have imagined New Orleans under water? This year, it could be much of southern Florida. And FEMA has already said we're on our own.

But what the hell. King George lives in D.C. and Crawford, Prince Jeb lives in Tallahassee and who knows where else. And worst case, they can always camp out with Poppy in Kennebunkport. None of this will affect them.

And as for those who will be affected, I'm sure Babs Bush will have some kind words for them like she had for the people being sheltered in the Astrodome.

[MadMaddie]

1. It's sad isn't it...The greatest country in the world with the

greatest resources....is willing to spend billions in a country that doesn't want us there...yet when it comes to protecting and helping fellow Americans....you can't find them.

America are you awake yet?

[Opusnone]

2. Contaminates drinking water and cuts off major N/S routes!

Like South Florida doesn't have enough problems.
The people in Pahokee, Belle Glade and surrounding poor areas will be most affected, however.
Average incomes WAY below the median.

[Cyrano]

3. There's a large state prison in Belle Glade.

If the dike goes, they'll never get the cells unlocked in time. And even if they could, there would be no place to which to run. The Bush's will call it a tragedy. I will call it mass murder.

[tatertop]

5. America under bush has become a land of grim predictions

[Jacobin]

4. Unfortunately New Orleans is in a bowl

and 8 to 12 feet below sea level. So when the bowl fills up, it won't drain out....it has to be pumped out.

Is the area where people are living in Florida near the Okechobee below sea level?

These sound like two entirely different problems.

[Cyrano]

7. There was a story about this in the Palm Beach Post last week, but

I can't find it. Much of what I stated in the OP was included in this article.

Check out Google. There's a lot there about Lake Okeechobee. I can't do it right now, but you might check out the Palm Beach Post archives at palmbeachpost.com.

[Synnical]

10. Here's the Sun Sentinel Story

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-pdike03may03,0,380859.story

If the levee were to breach, it could rival Hurricane Katrina's effect on New Orleans by flooding the surrounding region, risking the lives of 40,000 people and threatening urban water supplies to the southeast, the report predicts. While state officials said they're hurriedly updating an evacuation plan for the region, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers insisted that the earthen levee it built more than 70 years ago remains safe and work is under way to make it safer.

. .


It's described as the key piece "upon which both the human and natural environments of South Florida intimately depend. ... Without Lake Okeechobee there would be no Everglades ... there would be no adjacent agriculture, no reliable drinking water supply from Palm Beach to Key West, no adequate barriers to saline intrusion of aquifers, and no control of freshwater discharge to tidal estuaries. And without the Herbert Hoover Dike, there would be no Lake Okeechobee."

. .

Rising 25 to 30 feet above the ground, the dike prevents 730-square-mile Lake Okeechobee, northwest of West Palm Beach, from bursting into neighboring farming towns such as Belle Glade and Pahokee. The dike was built after a 1928 hurricane lifted the lake over its southern bank, killing more than 2,000 people.

The levee -- piled dirt, sand and rock -- was designed to withstand 115 mph Category 3 hurricane winds and a water height of 21 feet above sea level.

[Jacobin]

13. Thanks for the info

Sounds like its vulnerable to a direct hit.

I thought Bush just got finished spending a gazillion dollars on that marsh? I suppose it wasn't for the levees.

[Cyrano]

14. Thank you for digging out this story, Synnical. I was running before

otherwise I would have worked on digging out the Palm Beach Post story. I should have dug it up before starting this thread, but on occasion, I can be as stupid as a freeper.

I really appreciate your posting this. Thank you again.

[Synnical]

19. No Prob

I happened to be reading local news on the Sun Sentinel web site when I saw your post.

Hi Neighbor!

-Cindy in Fort Lauderdale

[jsamuel]

9. In the early 1900's THOUSANDS of people died when lake Okeechobee

was pushed south by a hurricane. Most of the people were black and the bodies were so numerous, no one knows how many really died. Knowing this, I was very concerned about NO before Katrina since it also has a large lake. Unlike the ocean, lakes have a large surface area and no convection to balance out a hurricane's wind.

It is just like NO. NO wasn't invaded by the Ocean/Gulf, it was the lake.



While South Florida is not a "bowl" it is a slope and even though they are a hundred miles from the sea, they are only 10-20 feet above it. That is why the Everglades exist.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1928_Okeechobee_Hurricane

"In south Florida at least 2,500 were killed when storm surge from Lake Okeechobee breached the dike surrounding the lake, flooding an area covering hundreds of square miles. In total, the hurricane killed at least 4,075 people and caused around $100 million ($800 million in 2005 US dollars) in damages over the course of its path."

[bullimiami]

6. so fla will never be like NO. the levees on okeechobee are more

than suffcient and okeechobee is always kept drawn down during the hurricane season.
of course the whole of west dade and west broward could end up with a few feet of water because they are part of the everglades but it will never be NO.

the levees around okeechobee were raised and the water management set up just to avert another catastrophe like 1928. We are not 10+feet below sea level.

wilma went right over okeechobee.

[jsamuel]

12. it was the NO before NO (it already happened)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1928_Okeechobee_Hurricane

"In south Florida at least 2,500 were killed when storm surge from Lake Okeechobee breached the dike surrounding the lake, flooding an area covering hundreds of square miles. In total, the hurricane killed at least 4,075 people and caused around $100 million ($800 million in 2005 US dollars) in damages over the course of its path."

Those numbers are way too low as all black people who died (maybe most of the population) were not reported.

[bullimiami]

17. this was in 1928 before the current levees and water management

district.

this particular disaster is not likely to happen again barring biblical flooding preceding a monster storm.

South Floridas flood danger is not in people dying or getting washed away in flashfloods, our flooding would be consist of miles and miles of knee deep dirty stagnant water.

[RebelOne]

8. I just hope that if a hurricane hits that area, that the people

in the surrounding towns will be evacuated. Knowing the condition of the dike, they would be crazy to stay. I don't think it would destroy the Everglades because that's pretty much water anyway.

[Opusnone]

11. Most people don't own a car in the surrounding areas

When I tell you it's poor, we're talking Grapes of Wrath poor.

[Cyrano]

15. The Everglades is not "pretty much water anyway."

It's often referred to as a sea of grass. It's not just "a swamp." The Everglades has to be seen to really grasp what we're talking about. Were the Everglades to be destroyed, millions of living creatures would be killed. And I'm not sure if anyone knows how many different species might be wiped out forever.

As far as the surrounding towns, the areas to the south of the lake are impoverished. Many people don't own cars and even if they did, there's no place to run to. Florida is a long narrow peninsula and if you're south of the lake and the dike goes, it's possible your body would wash up on a Caribbean island, assuming it was ever found at all.

The Everglades are as much of a national treasure as the Grand Canyon, or the redwood forests. Once gone, it can't be replaced.

[bullimiami]

18. cyrano, andrew was a pretty good indicator of what we can expect from

a monster hurricane. and the no name storm in 2000 was a pretty good indicator of what we can do with an insane amount of rain.

well be ok. we are not new orleans.

[Cyrano]

20. I saw Homestead after Andrew. It looked like a nuclear bomb had hit it.

I'm in no way suggesting that everyone panic and get out of south FL. However, if the dike goes, it will destroy the Everglades. And west Broward and Dade counties being knee deep in muddy water sounds pretty dire to me, so please don't play down the possibility of what could happen if the dike doesn't hold. And just because it held up during Wilma offers no comfort it will hold up the next time.

What I'm saying is, please don't underestimate the magnitude of the possible disaster. The towns just south of the lake will look like NOLA.

[KyuzoGator]

16. F.E.M.A. will be re-organized into S.A.V.E.-U.R.S.E.L.F.

Thanks again, Colbert.