LAwxrgal wrote:I probably live on the rare part of SELA that's above sea level -- the River Parishes (although it's not much above sea level, only 17 feet LOL
) and I notice houses here are shrinking too.
Plus areas to my west have had sort of a real estate boom, they're building houses on land that I think is not appropriate for building houses, even though they're putting them on top of hills. I pass through the area during an ordinary rainstorm (and even during Isidore in '02) and there's flooding. I shudder to think what a Cat 3+ will do.
I agree with you with regard to land subsidence (sinking) in areas adjacent to the Mississippi River in the river parishes. I have a buddy who lives on the river road in Lutcher and he and his neighbors have foundation problems similar to what people in Jefferson and Orleans Parishes have experienced: failure due to ground subsidence. That's one of the unfortunate drawbacks to the Mississippi River levee...the floods which presented problems for the people living on the banks also replenished the soils periodically with river silt. Now they're contained and no longer able to do the job.
Ditto on the building boom in the Ascension, St. James and St. John parishes. Particularly on two counts...1.) I very much question the quality of construction in many of the residential developments that have gone up in the last 4 or 5 years with regard to the homes' ability to withstand hurricane force winds...particularly with the popularity of the high-elevation "faux chateau" french style homes that are all the rage at the moment in the region , and 2.), the policy of mitigation (digging ponds and using the fill dirt to raise the foundations) in areas that were originally restricted from development by wetlands legislation. Developers in south Louisiana have turned a loophole into a four-lane freeway tunnel and now have the ability to pretty much build wherever the $$$$ will take them, and it's taking them places where common sense and history would emphatically say NO (if any developer and loan officer could be distracted from the dollar signs long enough to pay attention to history).
The obvious nightmare scenarios of New Orleans and the lower coastal parishes aside, there's more potential than people realize for a staggering degree of property damage should another Carla, Betsy, or Camille roll through here ...and unfortunately, a lot of it will come as a result of our own poor planning and failure to wisely and aggressively regulate development.
Whew...rant over. And now back to your regularly scheduled hurricane season.
