Our weather is getting screwy, bordering on scary. I'm not talking about any topic of even minor controversy; I'm just stating observable facts. The Midwest has been getting floodier and floodier, with seemingly no end in sight. At the same time, these thunderstorms are spinning off tornadoes nearly every day. As the older levees around it fail, Cedar Rapids is moving rapidly in the direction of New Orleans circa 2005. And all the responsible government officials ever manage to cough up by way of excuse for failing to adequately protect the city's homes, offices and hospital is that "no one could have imagined" a storm of this size. Really?
Who are all of these designers and engineers with such an alarming lack of imagination? It would seem obvious that a levee isn't built solely to protect the city during times of normal rainfall. If doesn't even do that, then that would be obvious negligence. No, the real test of a wall built to hold back a raging river is how that sucker holds when it rains very very hard over an extended period of time. That's the whole deal. So if it can't withstand that test -- what was the point?
No comments:
Post a Comment