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Here is a link to the entire article
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9234051/
but the part I found most interesting was here:
In 1998, Deputy Assistant Army Secretary Michael L. Davis tried to stop the Army Corps of Engineers from rubber-stamping casino applications without studying the impact dredging would have on marshes that shelter wildlife, purify drinking water and help prevent flooding. This angered Lott, then Senate majority leader, who had recently flown to Las Vegas in a casino executive's jet and had raised $100,000 for Republicans at a casino-industry fundraiser.
Lott got the moratorium lifted, then he got the Army to launch an investigation of Davis. No wrongdoing was found, but Davis was removed from Gulf Coast permitting issues.
Other federal decisions have spurred coastal development. By law, barrier-island homeowners are not eligible for federal flood insurance. Ecologically, these islands act as a mutable and natural buffers against hurricane surges. But when Hurricane Fran hit North Carolina in 1996, the federal government forked over money to rebuild barrier-island roads and bridges -- and set off a development gold rush.
"They used to require 600-foot-deep lots on these islands -- now developers are selling postage-stamp lots," said Pilkey, the Duke professor.
The federal government also paid prodigious sums in flood insurance claims to property owners who had insisted on building in harm's way. In 1998, David Conrad of the National Wildlife Federation identified 32,000 properties in which the owners already had cashed in at least two federal flood insurance claims. The federal flood insurance fund now shows a negative balance -- and it has not begun to address the coming surge of Katrina claims.
"There's been a steadily increasing buildup in high-hazard areas, especially in the Gulf from Louisiana to Alabama," Conrad said. " The federal and local governments don't have the ability to say no, even when the risks are so obvious."
On the coastal roadway in Biloxi, a massive red crane -- in place to repair work from the last hurricane -- sprawls across the road. Elegant Victorian homes are hollowed shells; discount motels seemed to have just exploded. The gray branches of cypress trees are clotted with mattresses and sheets and little girls' dolls. Up the road, a 30-foot storm surge had hurled a huge casino ship across the coastal road and into the flank of an old apartment building. The casino lies on its side, like a beached whale.
"The most impressive picture to me was the casino that . . . squished on top of a Holiday Inn," said retired Brig. Gen. Gerald Galloway, formerly of the Army Corps and author of a report on flood-plain management. "I hope this makes people in the risk zones realize what they're up against."
Fortified Japanese cities
None of this is inevitable. In Japan, the government has spent billions of dollars fortifying cities against super-typhoons. After the Mississippi River floods of 1993, federal and state officials made the wrenching decision to buy out more than 13,000 flood-prone homes and businesses.
High waters in those areas now cause very little damage. In 1993, Charles County, Mo., suffered $26 million in damage; after a big buyout, a similar flood two years later cost $300,000. The entire town of Valmeyer, Ill., moved to higher ground.
Might this offer a solution for low-lying sections of New Orleans? House Speaker L. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) was castigated last week for even suggesting such a thing.
"I'm not sure it's tenable in this country to abandon a city of that size, but New Orleans should not even exist and hundreds of people are dying to prove that point," said David M. Bush, a professor of geology at West Georgia University. "To build it somewhere else would cost trillions of dollars -- but not to make a move risks an even greater disaster."
Scientists suggest that Gulf Coast officials should ban new building on barrier islands, require setbacks for all coastal development, and perhaps refuse to reconstruct a bridge or two. But they doubt that will happen.
"It's almost unpatriotic to say we can't stop nature," Pilkey said.
While American flags hang from the broken bones of homes, and thousands of residents wait for flood insurance checks in Biloxi and Gulfport, three gleaming, 20-story condominium projects -- the Vue Crescent, the Caribbean Dream and the Shores of Paradise -- remain slated for construction. The determination in the voice of Biloxi Police Officer John Campbell, 50 and bald and muscular, is heard everywhere.
"I'm going to rebuild my house on stilts this time," Johnson said. "You can't let Mother Nature beat you."
That determination was seconded by President Bush when he visited the Gulf Coast last week.
"The good news is -- and it's hard for some to see it now -- that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before," Bush said. "Out of the rubble of Trent Lott's house -- he's lost his entire house -- there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9234051/
but the part I found most interesting was here:
In 1998, Deputy Assistant Army Secretary Michael L. Davis tried to stop the Army Corps of Engineers from rubber-stamping casino applications without studying the impact dredging would have on marshes that shelter wildlife, purify drinking water and help prevent flooding. This angered Lott, then Senate majority leader, who had recently flown to Las Vegas in a casino executive's jet and had raised $100,000 for Republicans at a casino-industry fundraiser.
Lott got the moratorium lifted, then he got the Army to launch an investigation of Davis. No wrongdoing was found, but Davis was removed from Gulf Coast permitting issues.
Other federal decisions have spurred coastal development. By law, barrier-island homeowners are not eligible for federal flood insurance. Ecologically, these islands act as a mutable and natural buffers against hurricane surges. But when Hurricane Fran hit North Carolina in 1996, the federal government forked over money to rebuild barrier-island roads and bridges -- and set off a development gold rush.
"They used to require 600-foot-deep lots on these islands -- now developers are selling postage-stamp lots," said Pilkey, the Duke professor.
The federal government also paid prodigious sums in flood insurance claims to property owners who had insisted on building in harm's way. In 1998, David Conrad of the National Wildlife Federation identified 32,000 properties in which the owners already had cashed in at least two federal flood insurance claims. The federal flood insurance fund now shows a negative balance -- and it has not begun to address the coming surge of Katrina claims.
"There's been a steadily increasing buildup in high-hazard areas, especially in the Gulf from Louisiana to Alabama," Conrad said. " The federal and local governments don't have the ability to say no, even when the risks are so obvious."
On the coastal roadway in Biloxi, a massive red crane -- in place to repair work from the last hurricane -- sprawls across the road. Elegant Victorian homes are hollowed shells; discount motels seemed to have just exploded. The gray branches of cypress trees are clotted with mattresses and sheets and little girls' dolls. Up the road, a 30-foot storm surge had hurled a huge casino ship across the coastal road and into the flank of an old apartment building. The casino lies on its side, like a beached whale.
"The most impressive picture to me was the casino that . . . squished on top of a Holiday Inn," said retired Brig. Gen. Gerald Galloway, formerly of the Army Corps and author of a report on flood-plain management. "I hope this makes people in the risk zones realize what they're up against."
Fortified Japanese cities
None of this is inevitable. In Japan, the government has spent billions of dollars fortifying cities against super-typhoons. After the Mississippi River floods of 1993, federal and state officials made the wrenching decision to buy out more than 13,000 flood-prone homes and businesses.
High waters in those areas now cause very little damage. In 1993, Charles County, Mo., suffered $26 million in damage; after a big buyout, a similar flood two years later cost $300,000. The entire town of Valmeyer, Ill., moved to higher ground.
Might this offer a solution for low-lying sections of New Orleans? House Speaker L. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) was castigated last week for even suggesting such a thing.
"I'm not sure it's tenable in this country to abandon a city of that size, but New Orleans should not even exist and hundreds of people are dying to prove that point," said David M. Bush, a professor of geology at West Georgia University. "To build it somewhere else would cost trillions of dollars -- but not to make a move risks an even greater disaster."
Scientists suggest that Gulf Coast officials should ban new building on barrier islands, require setbacks for all coastal development, and perhaps refuse to reconstruct a bridge or two. But they doubt that will happen.
"It's almost unpatriotic to say we can't stop nature," Pilkey said.
While American flags hang from the broken bones of homes, and thousands of residents wait for flood insurance checks in Biloxi and Gulfport, three gleaming, 20-story condominium projects -- the Vue Crescent, the Caribbean Dream and the Shores of Paradise -- remain slated for construction. The determination in the voice of Biloxi Police Officer John Campbell, 50 and bald and muscular, is heard everywhere.
"I'm going to rebuild my house on stilts this time," Johnson said. "You can't let Mother Nature beat you."
That determination was seconded by President Bush when he visited the Gulf Coast last week.
"The good news is -- and it's hard for some to see it now -- that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before," Bush said. "Out of the rubble of Trent Lott's house -- he's lost his entire house -- there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch."
