Coast of Louisiana sinking faster than expected

[cycloneye]

Coastal Louisiana Sinking

Read the above articule about this grave news for those who live in those areas.For the past few years this talk about the sinking of the Louisiana's coast has been out there but aparently now after Katrina more fears haved grown about a more rapid sinking.

[HurricaneHunter914]

OMG! I knew that LA was below sea level but I didn't think it would sink like the Titanic. So do they expect LA to be taken off the map or will most of the state be just submerged?

[skysummit]

I heard on the radio the other morning that in 50 years, studies show La's gulfcoast to basically the northshore of Lake Ponchartrain....in other words, no more SELA, no more New Orleans, and no more Lake Ponchartrain. That would be the gulf. Picture Mississippi's Gulf Coast just going straight across as it got to Louisiana instead of curving to the south and down to Plaquemines Parish.

If it does happen, I'll be 80 years old by then so I may see it.

[TSmith274]

Well, I would have liked for them to include the solutions to this problem. One such solution is the construction of river diversions to siphon sediment past the levees and into surrounding marsh... mimicking nature, so to speak. Other solutions are closing passes, closing inland canals, etc... There are solutions. It's just going to take a lot of money in the form of returning a portion of oil and gas royalties back to Louisiana. Let's hope this happens before it's too late.

[skysummit]

Exactly TSmith! We need to keep our profits from the oil and gas industry and stop sharing it with everyone. That's exactly what we need to do. Texas does it! Why can't we?

[cajungal]

I am the same age as skysummit, so hopefully I will still be kicking at 80 years old. But, my home may be a houseboat by then. Pretty sad for our future generation. I seen a great change in our marshes below Houma in my 29 years that I been on this planet.

[Yarrah]

Hmm, sounds a bit like the Netherlands, which is also sinking quite rapidly. It's just too bad nothing can be done about this, because you can't keep the ground from sinking.

[HURAKAN]

More bad news. Louisiana sinking rapidly, Greenland ice caps melting rapidly, nothing good can come out from this mix. Unfortunately we have to throw into this mix the fact that we're in an extremely active period of cyclone activity. So more Katrinas and Ritas are likely. If I were the Louisiana's mayor, I would start asking for federal help to generate a plan of evacuations to move people to higher grounds or to out of state, or come up with an ingenious plan that would save SE Louisiana.

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

More bad news. Louisiana sinking rapidly, Greenland ice caps melting rapidly, nothing good can come out from this mix. Unfortunately we have to throw into this mix the fact that we're in an extremely active period of cyclone activity. So more Katrinas and Ritas are likely. If I were the Louisiana's mayor, I would start asking for federal help to generate a plan of evacuations to move people to higher grounds or to out of state, or come up with an ingenious plan that would save SE Louisiana.

I agree its to late to do anything. Just get the people out of there before it go under.

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

More bad news. Louisiana sinking rapidly, Greenland ice caps melting rapidly, nothing good can come out from this mix. Unfortunately we have to throw into this mix the fact that we're in an extremely active period of cyclone activity. So more Katrinas and Ritas are likely. If I were the Louisiana's mayor, I would start asking for federal help to generate a plan of evacuations to move people to higher grounds or to out of state, or come up with an ingenious plan that would save SE Louisiana.

I agree its to late to do anything. Just get the people out of there before it go under.

[Jim Cantore]

this is horrific news, the levee rebuilding will take long enough, if a major Hurricane hits this area in 25 years, the new levees wont save them if it sinks enough, we're talking about permanent evacuations in our lifetimes possibly, in 50 years another Katrina will permanently reclaim this area for the gulf, if I lived in say Buras, I'd leave now

[Jim Cantore]

More bad news. Louisiana sinking rapidly, Greenland ice caps melting rapidly, nothing good can come out from this mix. Unfortunately we have to throw into this mix the fact that we're in an extremely active period of cyclone activity. So more Katrinas and Ritas are likely. If I were the Louisiana's mayor, I would start asking for federal help to generate a plan of evacuations to move people to higher grounds or to out of state, or come up with an ingenious plan that would save SE Louisiana.

I agree its to late to do anything. Just get the people out of there before it go under.

we couldn't have done anything, nature will wipe out anything that tries to stop it, for example, the levees. The city would have sustained less damage without them, all the force built up trying to break through them and when it did it just smashed into houses

[zoeyann]

Guess if I am leaving this property to the grand kids they better have gills.

[SouthFloridawx]

:( Guess if I am leaving this property to the grand kids they better have gills.

awwww that's actually sad. Sorry zoeyann!!!

[canetracker]

I saw a story about this on the local news. It mentioned Louisiana sinking, but the eastern part of New Orleans was sinking faster due to a fault line.

"The Army Corps of Engineers discovered a $4 billion surprise by underestimating the cost of repairing the levees because south Louisiana is sinking. One geologist has said the sinking will continue, especially in New Orleans East, because that part of town rests on a fault line."

http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/wwl041806khsinking.499dce09.html

[Audrey2Katrina]

Where there is a will, there is a way, and while I concede the possibility of the Gulf being along the erstwhile Northshore of Pontchartrain, I do not concede it's inevitability. I'm in regular contact with a lot of the geologists and geophysicists at UNO and Tulane, and the fault line in the eastern section of the city has been known about for a long time--I remember the headlines in the TP when something akin to a 4.5 or 5 earthquake hit the Lake Catherine area many moons ago. Our wetlands, particularly in the SE part of the state CAN be reclaimed, TSmith hit on one major factor: all those canals and inlets bringing all that saltwater into the wetlands killing off the verdure holding it together. MRGO is a perfect example of such a monstrosity.

With that said, I must return to my first concession: it IS quite possible. But this is a state widely reputed for its corruption and while money talks everywhere, it possitively shouts from the rafters here. There are NO plans to remove the MRGO (see previous sentence) sad to say the outlook is bleak-- as where the way is there, I don't think the will is!

A2K

[Jim Cantore]

Look at it this way, that real shallow area that covers a good chunk of the gulf was once land.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Look at it this way, that real shallow area that covers a good chunk of the gulf was once land.

True, if you go back to practically an ice-age when the sea-levels were dramatically lower; but on the other hand, it's equally true that long ago the line of the Gulf of Mexico actually DID run horizontally (approx.) from Mississippi through to Texas--River systems built up most of Southern Louisiana.

[zoeyann]

I understand exactly what you are saying A2K. These are not new problems, they are existing ones that most people ignored until this past year when the storms brought them to light and then all of a sudden it became big news.

I know what you mean about MRGO. I keep seeing oil compaines tearing up the land and making canals to get equipment through. I can not help but wonder who gave them permits for that. Don't they know we need to keep what land we have. Nothing has changed and I do not expect it will either.

[Audrey2Katrina]

I know what you mean about MRGO. I keep seeing oil compaines tearing up the land and making canals to get equipment through. I can not help but wonder who gave them permits for that. Don't they know we need to keep what land we have. Nothing has changed and I do not expect it will either.

The saddest thing is that not only are they ruining the environment of SE Louisiana; they are ultimately commiting their own economic suicide as the MRGO WILL be gone one day--either by the people finally having the sense to DEMAND that it does-- Or nature will reclaim her to the Gulf.... either way they lose, it's just a matter of how many they take down with them.

A2K