All over the internet there has been a ring of consipiracy theories about the New Madrid fault line and how HAARP was going to purposely induce an earthquake. There was supposedly proof in that FEMA was scheduled to mobilize in May of this year. Well, guess we know why now....to manage the flood the Corp of Engineers created. (there goes that theory...almost) The question that keeps coming in my mind is how the insurance companies will handle this? This isn't a natural disaster but rather a man made one. If the insurance companies file bankruptcy or deny claims is the Fed Gov. going to step in and do the right thing? In my opinion the Gov. is liable and it shouldn't be passed on to the insurance companies which of course would trickle down in premiums. I haven't seen anything mentioned in the mass media. Has anyone else?
what? Doesn't this flooding have to do with record snowfall. I haven't been paying attention to the reasoning but that's what i figured
The Federal government provides flood insurance since private insurers won't insure for that. Given the scope of this flood I suspect there are a lot of people have been flooded who don't have flood insurance. At the moment they are out of luck but it wouldn't surprise me for some sort of federal fund to be set up.
Well, it's due to weather and arguably aggrevated by the Corp of Engineers blowing up a levee to divert the immediate downstream floodway from a more populated area. I guess there's a dispute of whether or not breaching the levee aggrevated the situation further downstream. The weather hasn't helped. I was just wondering out loud if the insurance companies would be on the hook for all of it or if the Feds would help in addition to the FEMA aid that would usually come in a natural disaster.
considering that song is about the songwriter's time in mental institutions, it's muy appropriate you, of all posters, referenced it.
I worry about the ORCS (Old River Control Structure) holding up. They're already going to royally mess up the Pontchartrain, but if the Atchafalaya Spillway cannot take the flow, the Mississippi could divert completely. That would be...holy ****.
Well, they're pumping like crazy now. If the rain or low would just come and sit on us for a few days instead of stalling over that area that would help. I guess the reason I was concerned about the ins. co's was that I found out my Homeowners went up 44% and my deductibles for almost anything weather related doubled. I'm AGGRO about it. Plus I feel sorry for those who live out of the flood plain who might get screwed because they didn't carry flood insurance.
good article about the ORCS here: http://www.dailyimpact.net/2011/05/03/the-flood-last-time-almost-apocalypse/
These giant floods are another example of not screwing with Mother Nature. The Mississippi historically flowed all over the Midwest but it has largely been compressed into the channel that it has now. Compressing the flow into a narrow channel just means more problems when the water volume is great. At the same time keeping the Mississippi in a narrow channel is causing the gradual erosion of the Louisiana coast as silt that would build up the delta is trapped back along the river leading to more problems with flooding as parts of the water way silt up.
Scary... 1.5 million cubic feet per second is ridiculous. If my math is correct, that's 11.2 million gallons of water per second or 89.75 million pounds of water per second.
An Arkansas man builds a levee around his home to save it from this historically bad flooding and from statements made by the uploader who posted the video it looks as though he succeeded as the uploader of the vid has reported the waters around the home are now receding. <iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/QgKsehkcIF8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
being from houston you remember the concrete used in dredging bayous making for the huge canyons running through the city. about five years ago i read an article in the chronicle where they are doing away with this practice, dredging bayous to run more along their natural paths. much for the same reasons/problems you allude to about the mississippi in your post
