DC Levee Upgrade Races Against Climate Change
In a city obsessed with security, sandbags are only now being replaced as a first line of defense against disastrous Potomac River flooding
Grey clouds race over the National Mall, seemingly as fast as the airliners that would normally be making their approach to National. The airport is still closed. It is 2018. The city is reeling from a surge of floodwater sent up the Potomac by the fierce winds of a slow-moving hurricane, and is preparing for a second punch. Will the floodwaters gush over Washington DC’s levee? Will they cover Constitution Avenue and threaten the capital’s Maginot Line of bureaucratic fortresses? A touch of New Orleans When we think of levees, we think of New Orleans. But DC also has a levee. The problem is that our levee is not very good, says Gerry Galloway, engineering professor at the University of Maryland. I recently joined Galloway and members of …
jag
2:03 pm on Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Bill, read the headlines from this year alone. Your head is in the sand if you can't think of 20 "once in a century" weather events that have happened lately. Even as you freakin type 2/3 of the country is STILL in a drought. more ›