Mardi

Scientists Think Like a Hurricane to Beat the Next Katrina~Wired loses mind, goes e pablum unum

There were some surprising revelations in the course of the task force's investigation … some of which helped explain why Katrina had taken so many people by surprise. For one, Link's team found that the existing elevation maps of New Orleans were way off and would have to be totally redrawn. "We found things two feet below where people though they were," Link said. Obviously that made the city more vulnerable to flooding.
Also, in tightening up and rewriting the old mathematical models, the task force gained a clearer understanding of the limitations of modern science. "There's a lot we just don't know," Resio told Wired.com. But, as former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld once said, there are "unknown unknowns," which are bad, and there are "known unknowns," which are somewhat better. Finally the hurricane task force knew the basic outline of what it didn't know.

To combat public ignorance and complacency, Resio's team includes "risk communicators" -- basically, PR reps for hurricanes. Ironically, the high-tech storm models and sophisticated maps that the risk communicators rely on might actually undermine their work, according to one academic who has studied storms.
Courtesy Army Corps of Engineers,
building a better mouse trap for America's future...mice?

Editilla blows a 50amp fuse,
slams brain in a car door~
Wired? Donald Rumesfield? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
Katrina took so many people by surprise?
What the HELL is a Risk Communicator!?!
Come on Goddamn'it! Katrina surprised No One!
70 million'bazzillion'googol people knew that Katrina was coming. Who the hell are they talking about?
What no one knew was that those levees would fail --despite Katrina passing the city a severely weakened storm. What surprised everyone, except the Quixotic Corps of Engineers, is that they had built the levees incorrectly from the begining. They knew the levees were substandard because they built them that way.
Who in Hell does not know this?
They admitted such in Federal Court.
OH! Forking IceHole Don Rummy. You have fallen to quoting Don Rumesfield. Judas Priest! Just shoot me.
Hold On! I'm comin Elizabeth!
How do they time these articles?
What is the Corps Spin'trix setting up, hmmm?
What the hell is going on?
Flooding and the Failure of Corps of Engineers structures across the country: THAT is what is going on.
Their works are falling apart before our own lyin'eyes.
But, Wired? Who'da t'ought? I can sorta see Wired going for all the huge tech gadgetry, but what's the frequency, Ken? This is worse than finding out that Shania Twain is a Marc X Android Replicant. She is, ya'know.
I was a'tad surprised to find such Corps Ass Buff in the Gambit (tilla'd below) but to find such clop'cycled horse shit from a mag like Wired is what has really clogged my bowl. Has da'woild...truly gone to Mall in a hand'basket?
Yer oh'so humble Editilla has already left Wired 3 comments but we'd really love a hand here.
If you don't agree then fine, but how can anyone miss a bucket full of screaming monkeys...
--let alone 4 leaks in front of their brand new
17th Street Canal Levee "Repair"?
If Gentle'rillas do agree then...
Please Do let'em know we care!

Perhaps the Wired should hire David Winkler-Schmit form Gambit Weekly to do their pos'spin pieces about Acceptable Risks. This article today has more seepage than the 17th Street Canal Levee Repair Leaks! I don't mind going over and over and over an issue but this is ridiculous pablum that I have already waded through in recent posts, and so, to address such formulaic testimonial as journalism would be akin to sticking my tongue in a light socket again!
Where do they get these guys and why?
As ill, I am getting tired of people like Today's Spokes'ho, one Lt. Col. Murray Starkel, deputy commander of the Corps' New Orleans District, not showing up here,
but are able with near'mystical lobbitry to somehow get their name in the Gambit as The Word. I keep up pretty closely with the Corps and he is the 7th spokesperson in the past two weeks that they have shoveled onto the media. Like so many blind hunting dogs, this pack of spin'lackeys are Pretty and Loud--but they got no eyes! Or engineering licenses?
Gentle'rillas shall read this puff'duff article and ask, where is the Contradicting Engineering Report to the ASCE/IPET CORPS ASSBUFF?
Where is Levees.org or any mention of an 8/29 Commission?

Flash floods inundate Wis. town for 2nd time~Huff Post








In Wisconsin, an embankment (Corps-built dam) forming the side of the man-made Lake Delton
(upper left of sat-photo) failed, and the water poured out into the nearby Wisconsin River. The 245-acre lake nearly emptied, washing out part of a highway, sweeping away three homes and tearing apart two others. (Portage, WI-down stream center'right)
"It's horrible. There's no way we could stop it," said Thomas Diehl, a Lake Delton village trustee. "The breach is between 300 and 400 feet wide. The volume (of water) was just so great there wasn't anything anyone could do."
UPDATE on Lake Delton disappearing.

WAVICS~Wave-Current-Surge
Information System for Coastal Louisiana
Note~ Gentle'rillas can use these interactive sites together fo'da sights: zoom WAVICS sat'view out and "curser" the Map up the Mississippi River to Indiana and Illinois and then zoom'click back down to follow the smaller rivers like the Ohio and the Iowa.
This is active data. I use the USGS maps to get oriented to the states and their flood gages due to the lack of boundries of the sat'view. I also look up State Maps.
USGS~Flood Stage Levels current 'real-time' guage readings

Iowa Flood study never done, Corps said not funded~and pay no attention to your failing flood control structures the Corps has already built.
Editilla has a message for Iowa:
If the Corps' mouth moves---bag it!
This is not about PAST/FUTURE FUNDING!
This is not about the Corps building a better mouse trap to lure us back home so they can flood us again.
This is about already built, already tax-payer funded, flood control structures that are failing before our very eyes--like the LEAKING new repair job they did on our own breach in the 17th Street Canal Levee and unfortunately like the Lake Delton dam yesterday in Wisconsin, posted above. And it would be criminally foolish to da'gimpth degree to assume that the Quixotic Corps built only New Orleans levees substandard --while their equally designed and built flood control structures seem to be failing in Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, California, Alabama, Florida...ETC. This is about the Corps levees failing all over the country. This is about convening the 8/29 Commission.

Updated forecast: Waters could go over tomorrow morning
It now appears that the Coralville Reservoir could go over the spillway about mid-morning tomorrow. The latest forecast from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shows that sometime between 8 and 10 a.m. tomorrow, the water level at the reservoir will go above 712 feet above sea level, which will start to send water over the dam. More than 1 million sandbags have been placed around the county. Volunteers are now needed most at James St. in Coralville, the Idyllwild subdivision off of Foster Road and Dubuque Street in Iowa City and at Normandy Drive in Iowa City.
~Gage Readings: Iowa River below Coralville damn~Excellent Flood Map Mash'ups here.


Floodwaters exceed the banks of the Iowa River along Dubuque Street in Iowa City Tuesday June 10, 2008. Mayflower residence hall can be seen at the lower right and Interstate 80 is at the top of the photo.
Photo: Ron Mayland
~More photos here.



Key events surrounding the flood of 1993

Flooding To Force Closing Of Mississippi River

Shutting down Mississippi River could cause big economic ripple effect

U.S. Midwest cleans up after flooding as East Coast swelters

Levee Of Lies~Citizen K
"That levee of lies couldn't hold back the truth."~Sonny Landreth,
from "Blue Tarp Blues"

Flood waters rise around the businesses at the Pilot Truck stop, Saturday, June 7, 2008 in Indianapolis. Severe storms flooded central Indiana with as much as 10 inches of rain Saturday and spawned tornadoes that ripped up roofs and flipped tractor-trailers in Wisconsin and the Chicago suburbs. (AP / The Indianapolis Star, Matt Kryger) Story here

Big picture: Storms rip through Central Indiana

McCSAME: When The Levees Broke~Phawker
~McCain Voted Twice Against Establishing A Commission To Study The Response To Hurricane Katrina. McCain voted twice against establishing a Congressional commission to examine Federal, State, and local response to devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in the U.S. Gulf Region; and making immediate corrective measures to improve future responses.
2006 Senate Vote #6, 2/2/2006-2005 Senate Vote #229, 9/14/2005 McPoster Hat Tip-CenLamar

Web Applications and New Orleans, Congress, and Genocide
Excellent video presentation of conference with our own Alan Gutierrez (#09) on GSI Mapping Platforms for grass'roots citizens' data recording, organization and presentation. Power to da'People Right On, Alex!

Video: Live at An Event Apart New Orleans, Eric Meyer on Generated Content

"I got an idea of something we can do with a gun"
~Your Right Hand Thief

Kucinich Moves to Impeach Bush~Existentialist Cowboy

Taylor blasts FEMA~'Buttheads,' he says of no-ice plan

New Orleans Mayor,
Ray "Baby'Head" Nagin, loses
2 more rats from sinking ship

Students found New Orleans mission a rewarding one

Call to Photographers: "Elemental/Environmental: SPACE" at New Orleans Photo Alliance

Kalamu ya Salaam

Press Street, Rebuilding Together Call for Submissions for Book on New Orleans Recovery

Lil Wayne's New Album And Upcoming Film Focus On His Hometown, New Orleans
~For now, Lil Wayne doesn't have aspirations to be a full-time actor, but he definitely was happy to score a role in the new film "Hurricane Season." The movie centers on a New Orleans high school basketball team called the Patriots in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

John Ellis: Wide Angle ~all about Jazz

Jazz Saxophonist Kidd Stays In the Picture

Jazz Festival Brings Music and Memories to Toledo Waterfront
~For the eighth year in a row, the Art Tatum Jazz Heritage Festival will bring the sound and feel of New Orleans jazz to the streets and waterfront of downtown Toledo. Musicians ranging from local jazz orchestras to national headliners like the Ellis Marsallis Quartet will perform for packed audiences of up to 10,000 people at Promenade Park during the three-day festival organized by The Toledo Jazz Society.