There's a job for anyone who wants one, rebuilding America.posted by orthogonality at 1:59 AM on May 15, 2011 [103 favorites]
Yes, America, part of the cost of this will be born by our grandchildren and generations yet unborn -- but that's OK, because it will our grandchildren who will benefit for years to come from the work that we will do today and tomorrow. Yes, our grandchildren who will benefit from being born in a refreshed, renews, rebuilt America, will gladly pay their part of the cost of building it.
Because with the benefit of being American, comes the cost. That's only fair. Nothing in life is free, and the greatness that is America and will be our America future, isn't free. Which is why the American who have benefited the most today from our freedoms, our power, and our infrastruture, will also fair their fair share.
Anyone who is wealthy in this country, whether Rockefellers or Texas oil barons or immigrants like Sergey Brin, who came here form Russia to study at one of our great universities and who couldn't have built Google in any country but America -- any one of these wealthy people is only wealthy because he got into the Great Head Start of being an American.
Anyone who is wealthy here is wealthy because of of the tremendous, continent-wide infrastructure -- that's a big word that means roads, bridges, waterway, ports, railroads, power lines and telephone wires -- that we the people, free and slave, immigrant and native-born -- built for our common use.
And so the rich, who have benefited so much from our infrastructure will also pay their fair share -- not as a punishment for the hard work they did to build their business, no, but to ensure that they, and future entrepreneurs, can continue to Make It In America.
So we will allow the Bush tax cuts to expire for the richest American, those making over a quarter of a million dollars a year. When these tax cuts were passed, we were promised by the Republicans they'd create jobs and that they'd end in 2010. The jobs we were promised never materialized -- maybe they were offshored --, but we Democrats will keep the promises the Republicans failed to keep. We will end these tax refunds for the richest American, while extending them for everyone else.
And we will use the money saved to create jobs -- not for welfare, not for make-work bureaucracy --, but to build or rebuild the real things America must have to remain great: our bridges, our roads, our, yes, high speed rail, our ports and our waterways.
So if you're out of a job, and if you're not afraid of hard work, and you want to contribute to your country's future while earning a paycheck: I urge you to come to work. Starting tomorrow, you'll be able to sign up for the New Civilian Construction Corps online or at any US Post Office. And you'll get your first paycheck next week. Until you're actually assigned a job, your paycheck will be the equal to the unemployment check you're currently getting.
Starting next month, we'll be building a new Port of Mississippi, in Morgan City Louisiana. Starting next month, we will be rebuilding America and making our great country even greater, for us, for our children, and our children's children. God Bless America.
The Mississippi River, with its sand and silt, has created most of Louisiana, and it could not have done so by remaining in one channel.... Southern Louisiana exists in its present form because the Mississippi River has jumped here and there within an arc about two hundred miles wide, like a pianist playing with one hand—frequently and radically changing course, surging over the left or the right bank to go off in utterly new directions. Always it is the river’s purpose to get to the Gulf by the shortest and steepest gradient.Map via NPR's Krulwich Wonders as adapted from Harold Fisk's 1944 Geological Investigation of the Alluvial Valley of the Lower Mississippi River/U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (via Pruned).
"... According to the latest information from the Army Corps the Old River Control Structure is currently passing 624,000 cubic feet per second of water, which is 1% beyond what is intended in a maximum "Project Flood." The flow rate of the Mississippi at New Orleans is at 100% of the maximum Project Flood. These are dangerous flow rates, and makes it likely that the Army Corps will open the Morganza Spillway in the next few days to take pressure off of the Old River Control Structure and New Orleans levees. Neither can be allowed to fail. In theory, the Old River Control Structure can be operated at 140% of a Project Flood, since there are now four control structures instead of just the two that existed in 1973 (flows rates of 300,000 cfs, 350,000 cfs, 320,000 cfs, and 170,000 cfs can go through the Low Sill, Auxiliary, Overbank, and Hydroelectric structures, respectively.) Apparently, the Corps is considering this, as evidenced by their Scenario #3 images they posted yesterday. This is a risky proposition, as the Old River Control Structure would be pushed to its absolute limit in this scenario. It would seem a lower risk proposition to open the Morganza spillway to divert up to 600,000 cfs, unless there are concerns the Corps has they aren't telling us about. ..."Even having opened the Morganza spillway, the Corps is not certain of maintaining channel control, by some estimates, simply because the flow through the spillway is bound to draw flood trash and heavy silt loads into the spillway control structures. Weeks of flood flow through the Morganza spillway may well mean that closing it, when the time comes, becomes an engineering reconstruction project itself, because of substantial channel scouring in the main Mississippi channel at the spillway.
Governed by a board of seven Commissioners, the Port of South Louisiana, which stretches 54 miles along the Mississippi River, is the largest tonnage port district in the western hemisphere. The facilities within St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, and St. James parishes (counties) handled over 246 million short tons of cargo in 2010, brought to its terminals via vessels and barges.Or, per wikipedia: "The Port of South Louisiana is the largest volume shipping port in the Western Hemisphere and 9th largest in the world. ... It is the largest bulk cargo port in the world. ... This port is critical for grain shipments from the Midwest, handling some 60% of all raw grain exports."
Over 4,000 oceangoing vessels and 55,000 barges call at the Port of South Louisiana each year, making it the top ranked in the country for export tonnage and total tonnage.
With exports of over 48 million short tons of cargo in 2010 (go to News & Information/Statistics page for more statistics details) -more than any other port in North America- Port of South Louisiana cargo throughput accounts for 15% and 57% of total U.S. and Louisiana exports, respectively. Source
Every shopping center, every drainage improvement, every square foot of new pavement in nearly half the United States was accelerating runoff toward Louisiana. The precipitation that produced the great flood of 1973 was only about twenty per cent above normal. Yet the crest at St. Louis was the highest ever recorded there.posted by stbalbach at 10:24 PM on May 15, 2011 [3 favorites]
"... The Corps of Engineers opened two gates in the Morganza Spillway on Saturday, the first release from the facility since 1973. By Monday night, 15 of the structure's 125 bays had been opened, divertnig about 102,000 cubic feet (763,000 gallons) of water per second, Corps spokeswoman Rachel Rodi told CNN.posted by paulsc at 11:21 PM on May 16, 2011
The plan is eventually to open about a quarter of the spillway, according to the agency."
"... The Mississippi River is much bigger! Its flow rate during the year varies from over 700,000 cfs to around 200,000 cfs. Flow rates are higher in the spring (especially April) when the northern snows are melting and the spring rains abound, and they are lowest in the fall (especially September and October). "So, if the Corps does open 30 to 32 gates at Morganza in the coming days, sending 204,000 cfs down the Atchafalaya, along with the 624,000 cfs now passing through the ORCS according to Jeff Masters, the Atchafalaya basin is effectively going to experience somewhat greater flood flows than what it would carry on average if the Mississippi main channel were to permanently divert into the Atchafalaya! So, we're likely to see, temporarily, for real for a few weeks, what the effect of a major channel shift would be in the Atchafalaya basin, while full normal flow still goes down the current channel, past Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
"The effort to divert the swollen Mississippi River could flood 21,272 homes, inflicting damages of over $2.2 billion, says an analysis by financial research firm CoreLogic. These homes are in the path of deliberate flooding on the part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has opened 17 bays along the Morganza Spillway to flood rural areas with the intention of sparing the cities of New Orleans and Baton Rouge. ..."posted by paulsc at 3:04 PM on May 23, 2011
"The study also determined that 21% of these soon-to-be-flooded homes are not located in the special flood hazard areas designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. A total of 4,528 properties worth about $404 million are outside of these federal flood zones. The 100-year flood zones are areas determined by FEMA to have a 1% annual chance of flooding. These designations are significant because a Congressional law, passed in 1973, directs mortgage lenders to require residents of flood zones to purchase flood insurance. Howard Botts, director of database development for CoreLogic, estimates that up to 50% of the homes in the non-FEMA flood zones do not have flood insurance."
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posted by nile_red at 11:48 PM on May 14, 2011 [6 favorites]