There is a fascinating article about the levee system in the Baton Rouge Advocate today. In many ways, it's reassuring. But there are some comments in there that are more than a little disturbing.
Jim Murphy, of the American Society of Civil Engineers infrastructure committee, said there is an old saying, "There are only two types of levees. Those levees that have failed, and those that will fail." Oh, great!
Oh - and their brochure, called "So, you live behind a levee: What you should know to protect your home and loved ones from floods," says "Levees reduce the risk of flooding. But no levee system can eliminate all flood risk."
Okaaaaaay. That should keep me up tonight.
But a really frightening thing in the article was this chart (part of that graphic from the Mississippi River Commission) that compares river crest levels in previous floods to predicted crests this month. Look how much higher those predicted levels are than most of those previous flood levels! Our levees had better be DARNED secure or we are all in big trouble.
Definately give me something to think about, that's for sure!
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