USGS photos of before/after Katrina LA , AL, MS

[gulfcoastliberal]

Please remember that all these separate islands used to be one continous island before erosion tore them into pieces.

http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/hurricanes/katrina/photo-comparisons/chandeleur.html

More photos plus newly buried bayou town of Venice, LA

http://www.nwrc.usgs.gov/hurricane/post-hurricane-katrina-photos.htm

Breton Sound loses 30 miles of marsh (after 1900 sq miles of historic wetland loss of LA coast)

http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=997

Mainland Mississippi

http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/hurricanes/katrina/photo-comparisons/mainmississippi.html


Dauphin Island, AL

http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/hurricanes/katrina/photo-comparisons/dauphin.html

[rocktivity]

1. Even Mister Frigging BILL knew this didn't have to happen!

The hurricane itself, yes. The amount of devastation, number of casualties, and lack of preparation, no.

:headbang:
rocknation

[gulfcoastliberal]

3. The feds were horrible, but LAs traditional apathy to their sinking state

contributed. Boston got $15 billion for a highway. Florida got billions to restore the everglades. But the Louisiana citizens never lit a fire under their politicians to get them to do something about the loss of habitat. There were lots of sportfishers, but the main stock is Cajun shrimpers - they knew what was happening but still caught shrimp even though the habitat is dying and on it's last bum leg and they knew it, but had been discriminated against for so long they had a very cynical view of the State officials. Even residents of suburban Houma, LA - close to the Bayous and barely above sea level were too brainwashed to agitate and get their representatives to do something. This has been a disaster decades in the making, as we all know. Ever since the 1927 great flood of the Mississippi, when the Corps. of Engineers bottled up the river for good and Louisiana never got any more alluvial deposits to keep building and maintaining it islands, wetlands, and shorelines. One day Baton Rouge will be waterfront property. And it was/is all preventable, a castrophe initiated before global warming. We will lose one of the greatest ecological treasures of the world.

Edit: State pols were also more concerned with expansion of the oil/gas industry to worry or push to mitigate the wetland loss.

[Nothing Without Hope]

8. Don't forget the hundreds of millions for UNNEEDED "transportation" pork

in Alaska. Be sure to look through the whole thread on this - the scale of corruption and wastage is astronomical.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2021361
thread title: NYT op/ed on Republican PORK - PORK - PORK in Alaska - YOU'RE paying!

http://www.allhatnocattle.net.nyud.net:8090/bush_223M_Bridge_to_Nowhere.jpg

And then there is what is estimated (with 5 more years) as the coast of the MidEast wars: OVER ONE TRILLION DOLLARS:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2021276
thread title: NY Times op/ed: "The Trillion-Dollar War" - How many realize how much

[intheflow]

2. Nominated--because these photos need to be seen.

Just tragic! :cry:

[gulfcoastliberal]

4. Thanks for the nominations!

This is really is a tragedy, true Cajuns will become extinct along with the wetlands. As will many bird species - tennessee, yellow & black warblers, thrush's to name a couple.

[intheflow]

6. I met a couple Cajun good ol' boys at the Red Cross yesterday.

Shark fishermen. They'd never been out of their parish before. The landed in Denver, completely at a loss as to what they would do for work. That's when it it me that true Cajun culture may very well become extinct. Shark fishers in the Rocky Mountains. Sigh.

[Zuni]

5. wow. Those Mississippi shots

look like the before and after shots of Hurricane Camille.

Katrina, although not as powerful and concentrated, spread death and misery over a vast area

[gulfcoastliberal]

7. Katrina wreaked way more havoc than Camille

My grandmom is from Waveland and rode it(Camille) out on Coleman Avenue - the hardware store on the corner of Bourgeoisie & Coleman that is now flattened - but the guy and his dog survived. Structures that took Camille were literally disintegrated by Katrina. Waveland/Bay St Louis got the NE quadrant - the very worst strom surge and winds of the hurricane sectors. 30 ft storm surge in Waveland = 95% of structures totally gone. Gone. It is fucking unreal on the ground there. I will post pics sometime so you get an idea of just how bad it is on the streets. Grandmom at this time is 81 and evac'd to FL with my mom (her daughter) - her house 2 blocks in from the beach is totally gone. Nada, zip, zilch left of everything she owned. And she is just one of many, many Mississippi residents in the situation. Merh's place in Gulfport is gone, but he's tough & rebuilding. Grandma is going to live in a condo my mom owns and is not rebuilding. I don't know what we'll do with the land - it's a double lot and used to be very desirable, she'd get unsolicited people asking to buy it all the time because of all the space, huge veggie patches, wonderful gardens, pear trees, etc. Now all gone. I don't know how you could rebuild there unless you started the living quarters 30 ft up. That's even tougher than barrier island building codes. I dunno what they'll do in terms of rebuilding codes.

[Zuni]

10. Katrina no doubt caused more destruction

and was a larger Hurricane in area. The devestation left by Katrina all along the Gulf Coast was mind boggling.

I think, in general, when we rebuild, we are going to have to make serious changes on where we rebuild. The areas hardest hit, right on the gulf coast or in flood prone-low lying areas along Hurricane alley might have to be left uninhabited because they are simply too high a risk. In New Orleans, perhaps costructing artificial hills, flood absorbing canal systems and extra barriers for flood waters, or building all homes on stilts like they do in areas prone to storm surges. I never want to see this kind of utter destruction again

Although Katrina was the most destructive storm in US History, Camille and the 1935 Labor Day Hurricanes are considered the most powerful storms to hit the US since accurate measurements of wind speed/air pressure have been available. At landfall, Camille had sustained winds of between 190-200 mph, gusts reaching over 220 mph and over 30 foot storm surges. Camille was "small" by hurricane standards, a very tight compact killer that concentrated its fury.

The 1900 Galveston Hurricane caused the most deaths, over 6000, and since then Galveston has created an elaborate sea wall to prevent storm surges

[Why Syzygy]

9. Mother Earth

She is alive. Let's keep her and her children alive.