T1B

The flooding has raised questions about the adequacy of the patchwork system — in which little information is known about where levees exist, who maintains them, and what their condition is — even as towns downstream hurry to fortify their own levees in preparation for the cresting floodwaters still moving south. Some are smaller agricultural levees built to 30- or 40-year flood standards, while others are higher, designed to protect river towns.

Already, the flood seems likely to equal or exceed the 1993 floods that wreaked havoc in these states, taking 48 lives and causing more than $20 billion in damage.

Several lessons and recommendations emerged from the 1993 floods, but few have been acted upon, says Mr. Galloway.

One of the key lessons: that the loose amalgam of federal and non-federal levees wasn't sufficiently monitored or maintained. No one knows how many levees exist or what their condition is, and most are turned over to local communities after being built.

Galloway recommended that the government develop an inventory and inspection system for levees similar to the one it created for dams in the 1970s. Congress finally agreed after Katrina to start such a program, but lawmakers have yet to appropriate sufficient money, Galloway says.

To qualify for the National Flood Insurance Program, structures simply need to be behind a levee built to a so-called 100-year standard, meaning there is a 1 percent chance in any given year that a flood will rise above the levee. In the Netherlands, on the other hand, levees for ocean flooding are built to a 10,000-year standard, and inland levees are designed at least to a 250-year standard and usually in excess of 1,250 years..

To qualify for the National Flood Insurance Program, structures simply need to be behind a levee built to a so-called 100-year standard....Some are smaller agricultural levees built to 30- or 40-year flood...

Tom wrote:I read of one couple that just purchased their home, purchased insurance and everything to cover themselves. Unfortunately, it was ten days before the flood. So they aren't covered at all and lost EVERYTHING.

Wolfman wrote: --cheap peace of mind.

I bought it anyways-- $320 a year for my coverage--cheap peace of mind.

Left Seater wrote:In NOLA the reason so many had insurance issues is that they didn't have flood insurance. Without flood they were SOL.

Dumbasses. Enjoy them in Houston.

To sumarize one ungrateful fatass: "Look you stupid white bitch, don't go disrespecting me by bringing me some shoes that aint Nike. Walk your ass back there and find me a size 9 pair of white Nikes 'for I call up the TV and tell them how you been treating me all racist like."

War Wagon wrote:

To sumarize one ungrateful fatass: "Look you stupid white bitch, don't go disrespecting me by bringing me some shoes that aint Nike. Walk your ass back there and find me a size 9 pair of white Nikes 'for I call up the TV and tell them how you been treating me all racist like."

That's one fucked up story, but what's worse is that I tend to believe it wasn't embellished much, if any.