more on Katrina and lessons from abroad

["David Farber" <dave () farber net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: "Paul Saffo"<psaffo () iftf org>
Sent: 02/09/05 9:37:40 AM
To: "dave () farber net"<dave () farber net>
Cc: "Paul Saffo"<psaffo () iftf org>
Subject: Re: [IP] more on Katrina and lessons from abroad

Dave-
There is a very good interview on The World ( www.theworld.org ) with  
Georg Schulz (sp?), a senior minister in the Ministry of  
Transportation,Public Works and Water Management  in Delft, the  
Netherlands about dikes. He points out that the 1952 event changed  
they way they thought about their dikes. Schulz is delightfully Dutch  
-- utterly direct and pragmatic. Do listen to the entire interview,  
but here is an excerpt to whet your curiosity:

--------------
"If you look at the dikes in New Orleans... the safety level of the  
dikes in New Orleans is for a once in 100 year event ... But... our  
sea dikes have a 1 in 10,000 year safety level. A safty level about  
100 times those in New Orleans..."

When asked about the cost of the Dutch dikes, he replied,
  "If you look at the economic damage you have, then the investments  
in the dikes are easily justified..."
----------------
So utterly, crushingly obvious...
-p
On Sep 2, 2005, at 3:17 AM, David Farber wrote:

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