upisgr8
09-05-2005, 04:09 PM
“I read the news today, Oh Boy. . .” -- A Day in the Life, John Lennon
No rehash here of the televised hurricane horrors & abandoned-human flotsam tragedies all y’all know too well.
Instead, herewith our SubPar exploration of factors CNN/MSNBC & Fox cannot capture in dramatic 90-sec videos. TV audiences must disregard the impact of history on our "News," and suffer endlessly disconnected events, absent Connections or Context. "**** Happens -- Film at Eleven!!"
Boring stuff like science, history and causation yield another, more nuanced view. The complex details of this week's historic event are far more interesting, and more important than a flock of reporters leaning into High Winds.
So PAY’TENNSHUN!
Remember as a kid, when you first were introduced to the name M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I? There was something wonderful about those crazy, repeating letters, and the sing-song magic of spelling an eleven-letter word correctly. "Messipi" was the Ojibwa/Chippewa name for an impressive new river the French came upon in 1666, which they reckoned meant "big river." (Savages not too complicated, nor their words, remember? Ugh.) The s-s’s and p-p’s of 'misi-sipi' flowered & followed French explorers Marquette, Jolliet & La Salle all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, whereupon the entire territory was claimed for France. They had a flag, see?
Indeed, said ‘big river’ is the world's third longest after the Nile and Amazon -- the Mississippi flows about 3,781 km (2,350 mi) to a huge delta in southeast Louisiana that drains c.1,231,000 sq mi (3,188,290 sq km) of the central United States, including all or part of 31 states and c.13,000 sq mi (33,670 sq km) of Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada. Yikes.
[Brilliantly, the French eventually sold it all to Tommy Jefferson for two pizzas.]
But First, Folks partied for 130-odd years. The US opened as a new Start-Up & in 1798 the new Congress applied the old Ojibwa river-name to the new “Territory of Mississippi,” although the Euro-Americans had yet to figure out that M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I actually meant “ Floods Here!!!!!” Opps. No one ever asked.
Down at the business end of Ole Miss Riva is an ancient geologic feature called the Lake Pontchartrain Basin. Geomorphology is the awesome study of How Earth Changed, or Morphed, even before special effects.
Y’all will recall that 20,000 years ago in the Pleistocene Epoch continental and alpine glaciers covered a majority of the North American continent. Golf sucked. Sea level was at a lowstand -- approximately 91 m (300 ft) LOWER than present, so the future NawLeens was high & dry. Good time to Buy.
When the glaciers melted 18,000 years ago, sea level rose rapidly & continued to rise until the Holocene Transgression ended about 3,000-4,000 years ago. The MISS-PP-II leak started draining stuff as recently as 1,000 years ago! Right into the aforementioned Pontchartrain Basin! Good Time to Party.
The adjacent REAL ESTATE that became home to Jazz & Mardi Gras was truly magical. And Deadly from the Outset. New Orleans.
Geographers like to examine the difference between a city's "situation" —the advantages its location offers relative to other cities— and its "site" — the actual real estate it occupies. New Orleans has a near-perfect situation and an almost unimaginably bad site. It's because of the former that people have worked endlessly to overcome the hazards of the latter.
Because of the region's geography and topography, many 19th-century observers believed that God—working through nature, His favorite medium—would see to it that anyone shrewd enough to build and live in New Orleans would be made rich. The River moved Commerce, After All.
Well, not AnyOne. . .Instead the poorer residents were often carried away in floods, or battered by catastrophic storms. They were snuffed out by yellow fever epidemics, like the great scourge of 1853 that killed nearly 10,000 people in the city.
Over time, New Orleans developed a divided relationship with the environment: Nature, as embodied by the Mississippi, promised a bright future. But it also brought water, wind, and pathogens, elements of a fickle environment that in the past -as now- turned cruelly chaotic.
1. OH Yeah. . . .Let’s settle one thing: A Wig-wearing Dude with the handle ‘Count Pontchartrain’ landed the very cool Minister of Marine job under Royal-Rock Star Louis XIV (Now HE knew how to Party!) which accounts for the Basin & Lake’s name. Win Bar bets with that.
2. An Incredible Place: There is an awesome Corps of Engineers’ 220-acre scale model of the entire Mississippi River basin in Clinton, Miss’sippy used to simulate various conditions in the basin. Real Water, Real Wind, Real Floods! The events this week were predicted by the model years ago, following just HEAVY RAIN.
In fact, the basin that N.O. is nestled into actually protects it from winds, so Katrina blew by without much damage.
__________________________________
Back to Tommy Jefferson, Genuine Smart Guy:
To Governor Claiborne, Louisiana Territory
President Thos. Jefferson, Monticello
DATE: 1810
The Batture of New Orleans, being the bed contained between the two banks of the river, a naked shoal indeed at low water forming the ground of the port and harbor over which vessels ride, I have deemed public property in which all have a common use for the inhabitants of the city and of the Western waters generally. It must be preserved and protected from private exploitation.
- - - - -
What TJ had figured out was that the fickle River was not just a Moody River, but a Powerful Machine that moved sand into “Battures”. Somehow he knew those new shorelines must remain open.
No sooner had The Prez Ruled -- but three earthquakes in 1811 - 1812 estimated 8+ on the Richter Scale temporarily reversed the course of the Mississippi. What is really weird is that there was no such scale then, but the Quakes couldn’t wait.
The first steamboat also plied the river in 1811, opening Mark Twain’s river trade with increased profitability and importance. And a cool writing job.
- - - -
Folks Partied for another 100+ years and invented Gumbo and Jazz. American art & music were spawned.
- - - -
After disastrous floods in 1927, Congress authorized building 1,600 miles of levees below Cape Girardeau to contain the swollen river; and the establishment of floodways to divert water at the Bonnet Carre Spillway into Lake Pontchartrain. That sort of Flood Control seemed like a good idea. . .at the time.
Urbanization throughout the Basin led to drastic changes in land use patterns and major impacts on natural resources. Swamps were not yet understood, sadly.
Over time NO built a network of enormous pumps and hundreds of miles of canals—a quantity to make a Venetian feel at home. Their feats allowed the city to expand off the relatively high ground near the Mississippi and spread out into what used to be a huge cypress swamp along the shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Extending eastward along U.S. Interstate 12 from Hammond to Slidell, rolling woodlands, bottomland hardwood forest, wetlands and small farms converted into a suburban houses & shopping centers.
In contrast, petrochemical plants, bulk cargo facilities, grain elevators and refineries turned the banks of the Mississippi River into an industrial corridor from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. Flanking the plants are subdivisions and commercial developments covering areas that were once vast sugar cane fields.
Finally, Orleans, Jefferson and St. Bernard Parishes defined their boundaries with construction of an extensive hurricane levee protection system to The South -- at or below sea level, requiring constant drainage and flood control.
Like the Maginot Line of Big Guns that were to protect France, these levees were pointed the wrong way. The marshlands that were the lungs of the basin, absorbing runoff, are now pavements and roofs -- impermeable surfaces that ADD to runoff.
Levees are not impregnable -- worse yet, the higher the defenses are built, the more difficult it becomes to remove water once it finds a way inside New Orleans.
No rehash here of the televised hurricane horrors & abandoned-human flotsam tragedies all y’all know too well.
Instead, herewith our SubPar exploration of factors CNN/MSNBC & Fox cannot capture in dramatic 90-sec videos. TV audiences must disregard the impact of history on our "News," and suffer endlessly disconnected events, absent Connections or Context. "**** Happens -- Film at Eleven!!"
Boring stuff like science, history and causation yield another, more nuanced view. The complex details of this week's historic event are far more interesting, and more important than a flock of reporters leaning into High Winds.
So PAY’TENNSHUN!
Remember as a kid, when you first were introduced to the name M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I? There was something wonderful about those crazy, repeating letters, and the sing-song magic of spelling an eleven-letter word correctly. "Messipi" was the Ojibwa/Chippewa name for an impressive new river the French came upon in 1666, which they reckoned meant "big river." (Savages not too complicated, nor their words, remember? Ugh.) The s-s’s and p-p’s of 'misi-sipi' flowered & followed French explorers Marquette, Jolliet & La Salle all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, whereupon the entire territory was claimed for France. They had a flag, see?
Indeed, said ‘big river’ is the world's third longest after the Nile and Amazon -- the Mississippi flows about 3,781 km (2,350 mi) to a huge delta in southeast Louisiana that drains c.1,231,000 sq mi (3,188,290 sq km) of the central United States, including all or part of 31 states and c.13,000 sq mi (33,670 sq km) of Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada. Yikes.
[Brilliantly, the French eventually sold it all to Tommy Jefferson for two pizzas.]
But First, Folks partied for 130-odd years. The US opened as a new Start-Up & in 1798 the new Congress applied the old Ojibwa river-name to the new “Territory of Mississippi,” although the Euro-Americans had yet to figure out that M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I actually meant “ Floods Here!!!!!” Opps. No one ever asked.
Down at the business end of Ole Miss Riva is an ancient geologic feature called the Lake Pontchartrain Basin. Geomorphology is the awesome study of How Earth Changed, or Morphed, even before special effects.
Y’all will recall that 20,000 years ago in the Pleistocene Epoch continental and alpine glaciers covered a majority of the North American continent. Golf sucked. Sea level was at a lowstand -- approximately 91 m (300 ft) LOWER than present, so the future NawLeens was high & dry. Good time to Buy.
When the glaciers melted 18,000 years ago, sea level rose rapidly & continued to rise until the Holocene Transgression ended about 3,000-4,000 years ago. The MISS-PP-II leak started draining stuff as recently as 1,000 years ago! Right into the aforementioned Pontchartrain Basin! Good Time to Party.
The adjacent REAL ESTATE that became home to Jazz & Mardi Gras was truly magical. And Deadly from the Outset. New Orleans.
Geographers like to examine the difference between a city's "situation" —the advantages its location offers relative to other cities— and its "site" — the actual real estate it occupies. New Orleans has a near-perfect situation and an almost unimaginably bad site. It's because of the former that people have worked endlessly to overcome the hazards of the latter.
Because of the region's geography and topography, many 19th-century observers believed that God—working through nature, His favorite medium—would see to it that anyone shrewd enough to build and live in New Orleans would be made rich. The River moved Commerce, After All.
Well, not AnyOne. . .Instead the poorer residents were often carried away in floods, or battered by catastrophic storms. They were snuffed out by yellow fever epidemics, like the great scourge of 1853 that killed nearly 10,000 people in the city.
Over time, New Orleans developed a divided relationship with the environment: Nature, as embodied by the Mississippi, promised a bright future. But it also brought water, wind, and pathogens, elements of a fickle environment that in the past -as now- turned cruelly chaotic.
1. OH Yeah. . . .Let’s settle one thing: A Wig-wearing Dude with the handle ‘Count Pontchartrain’ landed the very cool Minister of Marine job under Royal-Rock Star Louis XIV (Now HE knew how to Party!) which accounts for the Basin & Lake’s name. Win Bar bets with that.
2. An Incredible Place: There is an awesome Corps of Engineers’ 220-acre scale model of the entire Mississippi River basin in Clinton, Miss’sippy used to simulate various conditions in the basin. Real Water, Real Wind, Real Floods! The events this week were predicted by the model years ago, following just HEAVY RAIN.
In fact, the basin that N.O. is nestled into actually protects it from winds, so Katrina blew by without much damage.
__________________________________
Back to Tommy Jefferson, Genuine Smart Guy:
To Governor Claiborne, Louisiana Territory
President Thos. Jefferson, Monticello
DATE: 1810
The Batture of New Orleans, being the bed contained between the two banks of the river, a naked shoal indeed at low water forming the ground of the port and harbor over which vessels ride, I have deemed public property in which all have a common use for the inhabitants of the city and of the Western waters generally. It must be preserved and protected from private exploitation.
- - - - -
What TJ had figured out was that the fickle River was not just a Moody River, but a Powerful Machine that moved sand into “Battures”. Somehow he knew those new shorelines must remain open.
No sooner had The Prez Ruled -- but three earthquakes in 1811 - 1812 estimated 8+ on the Richter Scale temporarily reversed the course of the Mississippi. What is really weird is that there was no such scale then, but the Quakes couldn’t wait.
The first steamboat also plied the river in 1811, opening Mark Twain’s river trade with increased profitability and importance. And a cool writing job.
- - - -
Folks Partied for another 100+ years and invented Gumbo and Jazz. American art & music were spawned.
- - - -
After disastrous floods in 1927, Congress authorized building 1,600 miles of levees below Cape Girardeau to contain the swollen river; and the establishment of floodways to divert water at the Bonnet Carre Spillway into Lake Pontchartrain. That sort of Flood Control seemed like a good idea. . .at the time.
Urbanization throughout the Basin led to drastic changes in land use patterns and major impacts on natural resources. Swamps were not yet understood, sadly.
Over time NO built a network of enormous pumps and hundreds of miles of canals—a quantity to make a Venetian feel at home. Their feats allowed the city to expand off the relatively high ground near the Mississippi and spread out into what used to be a huge cypress swamp along the shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Extending eastward along U.S. Interstate 12 from Hammond to Slidell, rolling woodlands, bottomland hardwood forest, wetlands and small farms converted into a suburban houses & shopping centers.
In contrast, petrochemical plants, bulk cargo facilities, grain elevators and refineries turned the banks of the Mississippi River into an industrial corridor from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. Flanking the plants are subdivisions and commercial developments covering areas that were once vast sugar cane fields.
Finally, Orleans, Jefferson and St. Bernard Parishes defined their boundaries with construction of an extensive hurricane levee protection system to The South -- at or below sea level, requiring constant drainage and flood control.
Like the Maginot Line of Big Guns that were to protect France, these levees were pointed the wrong way. The marshlands that were the lungs of the basin, absorbing runoff, are now pavements and roofs -- impermeable surfaces that ADD to runoff.
Levees are not impregnable -- worse yet, the higher the defenses are built, the more difficult it becomes to remove water once it finds a way inside New Orleans.