National Geographic OCT 2004 - When did this calamity happen? It hasn't yet

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National Geographic OCT 2004 - When did this calamity happen?

It hasn't yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

National Geographic OCT 2004 -

 

Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated

by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood

later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be

rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big

Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people

were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster

in the history of the United States.

 

 

National Geographic OCT 2004 - When did this calamity happen? It

hasn't—yet

The Louisiana bayou, hardest working marsh in America

Mon Sep 12, 2005 02:41

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?disc=149495;article=91169;title=APFN

 

NMG OCT 2004

Photograph by Tyrone Turner

By Joel K. Bourne, Jr.

Photographs by Robert Caputo and Tyrone Turner

http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/

 

The Louisiana bayou, hardest working marsh in America, is in

big trouble—with dire consequences for residents, the nearby city of

New Orleans, and seafood lovers everywhere.

 

It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana,

the Big Easy, the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured outside

moved as if they were swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside paid

silent homage to the man who invented air-conditioning as they watched

TV " storm teams " warn of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing

surprising there: Hurricanes in August are as much a part of life in

this town as hangovers on Ash Wednesday.

 

But the next day the storm gathered steam and drew a bead on

the city. As the whirling maelstrom approached the coast, more than a

million people evacuated to higher ground. Some 200,000 remained,

however—the car-less, the homeless, the aged and infirm, and those

die-hard New Orleanians who look for any excuse to throw a party.

 

The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead,

pushing a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept

to the top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then

spilled over. Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea

level—more than eight feet below in places—so the water poured in. A

liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over

the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned

porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and

strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse.

As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people

climbed onto roofs to escape it.

 

Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated

by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood

later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be

rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big

Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people

were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster

in the history of the United States.

 

When did this calamity happen? It hasn't—yet. But the doomsday

scenario is not far-fetched. The Federal Emergency Management Agency

lists a hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire

threats to the nation, up there with a large earthquake in California

or a terrorist attack on New York City. Even the Red Cross no longer

opens hurricane shelters in the city, claiming the risk to its workers

is too great.

 

" The killer for Louisiana is a Category Three storm at 72

hours before landfall that becomes a Category Four at 48 hours and a

Category Five at 24 hours—coming from the worst direction, " says Joe

Suhayda, a retired coastal engineer at Louisiana State University who

has spent 30 years studying the coast. Suhayda is sitting in a

lakefront restaurant on an actual August afternoon sipping lemonade

and talking about the chinks in the city's hurricane armor. " I don't

think people realize how precarious we are, "

Suhayda says, watching sailboats glide by. " Our technology is

great when it works. But when it fails, it's going to make things much

worse. "

 

The chances of such a storm hitting New Orleans in any given

year are slight, but the danger is growing. Climatologists predict

that powerful storms may occur more frequently this century, while

rising sea level from global warming is putting low-lying coasts at

greater risk. " It's not if it will happen, " says University of New

Orleans geologist Shea Penland. " It's when. "

 

Yet just as the risks of a killer storm are rising, the city's

natural defenses are quietly melting away. From the Mississippi border

to the Texas state line, Louisiana is losing its protective fringe of

marshes and barrier islands faster than any place in the U.S. Since

the 1930s some 1,900 square miles (4,900 square kilometers) of coastal

wetlands—a swath nearly the size of Delaware or almost twice that of

Luxembourg—have vanished beneath the Gulf of Mexico. Despite nearly

half a billion dollars spent over the past decade to stem the tide,

the state continues to lose about 25 square miles (65 square

kilometers) of land each year, roughly one acre every 33 minutes.

FULL REPORT:

http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/

 

===============

 

Loiusiana's Department of Wildlife and Fisheries estimates

that currently over 63,000 acres (25,000 hectares) of coastal wetlands

have been demolished, or chomped, by the now ubiquitous nutria. The

large, marsh-loving rodent, somewhere between a muskrat and a beaver,

was brought to Louisiana from South America in the 1930s for the fur

industry and has since claimed Louisiana's coastal wetlands as home.

The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries is hoping to control nutria

populations by encouraging Louisianans to trap them. And eat them.

 

Nutria meat, also called ragondin, is likened to rabbit or

dark turkey meat. It is higher in protein and lower in both fat and

cholesterol than beef, chicken, and even turkey. Though nutria is

difficult to find on menus, the department hopes it will one day

become a popular dish and has even posted recipes on its website:

www.nutria.com. So remember, " Nutria: Good for You. Good for Louisiana. "

 

—Mary Jennings

 

LAcoast

http://www.lacoast.gov

Maintained by the National Wetlands Research Center, this is

an excellent site for articles, newsletters, and general background

information on Louisiana's disappearing coastline and the restoration

efforts to save it.

 

Save Louisiana Wetlands

http://www.savelawetlands.org

Find out more information about this program run by

Louisiana's Department of Natural Resources.

 

Louisiana Coastal Area Ecosystem Restoration Plan

http://www.lca.gov

A comprehensive site that includes history and statistics on

the coastal area,

land change maps, and a link to the LCA draft plan.

 

National Wetlands Research Center

http://www.nwrc.usgs.gov

Read factsheets, news releases, and hot topics on Louisiana's

coastline and

wetlands in general, from this research center of the U.S.

Geological Survey.

 

Barry, John. Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and

How It Changed America. Simon and Schuster, 1998.

 

Hallowell, Christopher. Holding Back the Sea: The Struggle for

America's Natural Legacy on the Gulf Coast. HarperCollins

Publishers, 2001.

 

Streever, Bill. Saving Louisiana? The Battle for Coastal Wetlands.

University Press of Mississippi, 2001.

 

Tidwell, Mike. Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death

of Louisiana's Cajun Coast.

Vintage Books, 2004.

http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/

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The Louisiana bayou, hardest working marsh in America —NMG OCT 2004,

Mon Sep 12 02:41