Louisiana Requests Illinois Mud: Remember my Wonders Of Science post from two days ago? Here’s another one that shames me into an inner silence so unbelievably quiet. What ARE we doing to this earth and, in the process, to ourselves?
In order to restore marshes destroyed during Hurricane Katrina, the state of Louisiana has requested for silt from Illinois River overflow. If the Mississippi River down in southern Louisiana were left to its own devices, the river would: a) not flow where it does, and b) overflow periodically and create its own levees by depositing the requisite amount of silt along the riverbanks, which in turn would provide natural protection against storm surges caused by tidal or hurricane activity.
Now, we are forced to import levee material from the midwest.
Louisiana officials want to bolster the marshes ” already badly eroded before Katrina ” as a barrier against potential storm surges from future hurricanes. They are in early talks with Illinois to transport by barge or pipeline large amounts of mud to the Louisiana coast. Scientists say the loss of the buffer-like marsh over the decades was a big factor in Katrina’s powerful storm surge, which overwhelmed the city’s levees.
2.7 miles of marsh knocks out 1 foot of storm surge. Since the 1950s, more than 8,000 miles of canals have been dug for oil and gas exploration and shipping in the area, causing more than a third of coastal Louisiana’s loss of 1,900 square miles of marsh since the 1930s …
Storm surge finds its way far inland by traveling up the canals and shipping channels, most of which lead straight to levees that protect homes and businesses … a lack of sediment is at the heart of the losing fight against hurricanes, experts say.
Before the levees were built, the Mississippi River overflowed in the spring and replenished Louisiana’s marshes and swamps with silt, sand and mud. But today the 200 million tons of sediment that come down the river flow straight into the Gulf …
Now the states quibble over how much transporting the mud is going to cost our state and the Sierra Club wonders whether or not we are introducing Illinois River toxins to the region and the Gulf.
Earth to Sierra Club, we already receive the toxins of our particular drainage basin all the way from Minnesota down and, oh, remember Cancer Alley? Illinois River material may actually ameliorate our marshes.
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Foaming At FEMA:
9 = Number of times FEMA has called me in the last 36 hours to leave automated voice messages informing me that “your home was in one of the worst-hit regions, we do not require to check your home, you will be provided with assistance, if you have any questions, please call …”
0 = Number of times they have called Machelle
A decent sum (which has been put aside in savings just in case FEMA manages to see daylight and logic through all of the red tape and asks for some or all of the money back) = Amount of money they have given relocated and employed me
$0 = Amount of money they have given unemployed student, Machelle. The woman has been to the FEMA/DHS office in New Orleans over and over again only to be told that her application is in perfect order, they just don’t know why she hasn’t received the money yet, and, sorry, they can’t give her any themselves. It has been two months now since the hurricane.
I love my country, but am fully irritated at my government’s abject inefficiency. How hard is it for one of the richest nations on the planet to help its own? With a Category 4/5 headed towards the United States. Again.
