The Corps assembled a proposal for upgrading the system, but it came with the shocking price tag of nearly $28 million from the city. ..But then in March, floes from upriver ice jams tore through the levees exactly as predicted...Taken together, outlays may eventually cost double what it would have taken to upgrade the levee and viaduct—but now those expenditures will be drawn from FEMA and the Department of Transportation’s disaster funds, not a local bond issue.
And it would serve our best interests to recognize that what once were considered 100-year floods could, in fact, be ten- or 15- or 20-year floods now.
dohboi wrote:.......
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather- ... s/70008778
Severe storms trigger flash flood emergency around New Orleans as much more rainfall looms
Ten Years After Katrina, New Orleans Protected From Future Floods
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H80EIi90HKg
..... now home to what will be one of the world's largest pumping stations. 'We'll be able to pump an Olympic size swimming pool full in five seconds. So it gives you an idea of the pumping capacity of this facility,' said Elton Lagasse, an at large council member of Jefferson Parish. The facility is expected to be completed in 2017. Right now, temporary pumps that were built after Katrina remain in place. Lagasse said the community is far more prepared for any future hurricanes. 'They have completely re-leveed this whole system, redone all of our pump stations,' said Lagasse. 'All of our pump stations now have back-up generators, they have safe houses where the pump operators will stay. They are 35 feet off the ground and can withstand 250 mile per hour winds. So we are in a much better position than we were before as far as hurricane protection and as far as flood protection.'
In 1861, Northern California became the focal point for two consecutive atmospheric rivers that surged into the Sierra Nevada, melting snow at disastrous rates. By 1862, a catastrophic flood swept through the Central Valley, augmented by two rainstorms, creating an inland sea that was 300 miles long and 60 miles wide.
It rained for 45 days straight, according to a film produced by the U.S. Geological Survey. Thousands of cattle drowned, and vineyards and homes were washed away. The state went bankrupt. The American River near Auburn rose 35 feet, submerging towns.
New Orleans faces a never-before-seen problem with Tropical Storm Barry
Tropical Storm Barry presents New Orleans with an unprecedented problem, according to the National Weather Service.
The Mississippi River, which is usually at 6 to 8 feet in midsummer in the Big Easy, is now at 16 feet, owing to record flooding that's taken place this year all along the waterway.
In the meantime, Barry is spinning away in the Gulf of Mexico, threatening a storm surge of 2 to 3 feet at the mouth of the river, said Jeffrey Graschel, a hydrologist with the weather service's Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center in Slidell, Louisiana.
The unusual confluence of factors adds up to a forecast that has the river cresting Saturday at 19 feet, a level not seen since February 1950 and about 2.3 feet shy of the record set in April 1922, the weather service said Thursday.
This is the first time we've had a tropical system with water levels on the river this high," he said.
The prediction is rattling the nerves of residents also concerned about the 10 inches of rain Barry could dump before it moves out, CNN senior meteorologist Dave Hennen said. That deluge would follow the 9 inches that fell Wednesday in New Orleans, flooding parts of the city. ....
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/11/weather/ ... index.html
...Earlier this week, the New Orleans branch of the National Weather Service (NWS) forecast the Mississippi River to crest at 20 feet Friday night into Saturday.
Levees in New Orleans are able to protect the city from surges up to 20 feet, creating the possibility for a disaster ...
On Thursday, the river level forecast showed the river was expected to crest at 19 feet on Saturday, just below major flood stage...
...Some streets were inundated with as much as 3 to 4 feet of water...
June 2019
Wet conditions from July 2018 through June 2019 resulted in a new 12-month precipitation record in the U.S., with an average of 37.86 inches (7.90 inches above average), according to scientists at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.
The average precipitation for June was 3.30 inches (0.37of an inch above average), placing it in the upper third in the record books. Flooding conditions persisted along the central and Lower Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois rivers
In 2019 (as of July 9), there have been 6 weather and climate disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion each across the United States. These events included 2 flooding events and 4 severe storm events. Overall, these events resulted in the deaths of 15 people and had significant economic effects on the areas impacted. The 1980–2018 annual average is 6.3 events (CPI-adjusted); the annual average for the most recent 5 years (2014–2018) is 12.6 events (CPI-adjusted).
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
A slow-moving, single stationary storm brought so much rain to Baltimore that several neighborhoods flooded in the city Tuesday evening.
Photos and videos from across social media showed what looked like a river running through the streets of Baltimore in Little Italy, Harbor East and Fells Point.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Monsoons in southern India have devastated the state of Kerala, with 22,000 people forced to leave their homes. Floods last year were reported to be the worst in a century.
... States across India have been badly affected by floods in the last week — at least 38 people have been reported dead and 200,000 moved to safety in the western states of Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka.
Experts have warned that deforestation and increasing urbanization were at fault for the rising waters, as well as bad management of the dams across India.
... Officials warned that fuel shortages were widespread in districts which were cut off from larger cities. They also said that hundreds of villages in Maharashtra were lacking drinking water and electricity.
Floods hit Kerala in 2018. More than 200 people were killed in the disaster last August, which affected over 5 million Indians.
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