[Kreweoftruth] LEVEES.ORG: Half of America depends on levees

[CBrylski at aol.com]

The flood protection group Levees.org has discovered in a request
under the Freedom of Information Act that more than half the American
population lives in counties protected by levees.
http://levees.org/2/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/FEMA-Letter-9-18-2009.pdf
(contact Sandy Rosenthal, Founder, Levees.Org, (504) 722-8172)
A whopping 54.83% to be exact.  
This figure represents over 156 million people.

This figure is also significantly higher than the percentage reported
to Congress in a June 2008 briefing in Washington DC.  Just one year
ago, the Congressional Hazards Caucus reported that 43% of the
population was protected by levees.
http://www.hazardscaucus.org/briefings/levees_briefing0608.html

"Many believe that the levee failure and flooding during the Katrina
was a distinctly New Orleans problem," says Sandy Rosenthal, executive
director of Levees.org, founded in New Orleans after Katrina now with
chapters in six states. "In fact, levee failure and flooding is something 
that can happen in
every continental US state," she says.

“Man-made levees, like navigational channels, highways and dams are
alterations to a region's hydrological character and landscape, and if
done irresponsibly can be devastating,” says H.J. Bosworth, lead
researcher for Levees.org.  “This may be what happened in north
Georgia.”

According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Georgia floods
were a "once in 500 years flood," meaning the odds of such a thing
happening are less than 0.2 percent in any given year.
http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-floods-epic-officials-146106.html

But Jacqui Jeras, CNN meteorologist, said the urbanization of Atlanta
and its suburban sprawl also contributed to the floods.  "There used
to be a lot more earth and soil to help absorb this stuff," she said.
"But the rain really fell on the concrete jungle."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/09/22/atlanta.weather.science/index.html#cnnSTCVideo%23cnnSTCVideo

Sociologist and author Shirley Laska points out in a prepared
statement that residential development is at the core of the methods
that communities use to grow their tax base.

“It is a very powerful driver and participants are often regional,
even national interests in conjunction with local, "growth machine"
interests," says Laska.  “The predictions of flooding are usually
conservative and not stable: development adds to more flooding because
wetlands are targeted (thus losing the absorption quality) and
surfaces are covered by "big boxes," streets, homes etc. so the
flooding gets worse.”

Irresponsible changes to landscape in the name of economic growth can
bring prosperity to a few but trauma and loss to many innocent people,
notes sociologist Robert Gramling in his new book co-authored with
Laska, Catastrophe in the Making, The Engineering of Katrina and the
Disasters of Tomorrow.  Gramling points out that in New Orleans, an
ill-conceived navigation channel, the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet,
exacerbated the effects of Katrina and was “..perhaps the most
dangerous of all projects ever imposed” in the region.
http://octaviabooks.booksense.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp?s=storeevents&
eventId=430384

Sandy Rosenthal will be live on MSNBC-TV Oct. 13, between 9:30 and 10 a.m.

--
Sandy Rosenthal
Twitter.com/LeveesOrg
Founder and Director, Levees.Org
www.levees.org



cheron brylski
the brylski company
3418 coliseum street
new orleans, louisiana 70115
(504) 897-6110
cell (504) 460-1468
fax (504) 897-0778
www.brylskicompany.com
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