After Katrina: The Toxic Timebomb

New Orleans Mayor orders 'forecful evacuation' as contaminated waters threaten an environmental disaster

The devastation of Hurricane Katrina has created a vast toxic soup that stretches across south-eastern Louisiana and Mississippi, and portends the arrival of an environmental disaster to rival the awe-inspiring destruction of property and human life over the past week.

Toxicologists and public health experts warned yesterday that pumping billions of gallons of contaminated water from the streets of New Orleans back into the Gulf of Mexico - the only viable option if the city is ever to return to even a semblance of its former self -would have a crippling effect on marine and animal life, compromise the wetlands that form the first line of resistance to future hurricanes, and carry deleterious consequences for human health throughout the region.

The full extent of the danger is unknown and unknowable, but the polluted waters are known to contain human and animal waste, the bodies of people and animals, household effluence, and chemical and petrochemical toxins from the refineries that dot the Gulf coast in and around New Orleans.

"We're talking about a mass of decomposing dead bodies and animals. This is going to produce a horrible festering of unknown consequences," said Harold Zeliger, a chemical toxicologist and independent consultant based in New York State.

Source:
Independant Online

And just when we thought that the Worse was Over...

Some estimates say that up to 10.000 may have died in the New Orleans city alone, but these numbers will be known when the water is pumped out and when the debirs is cleared.

The toxic consequences of the disaster will have a profound impact on New Orleans even after the initial clearing is done.

This is another reason to NOT rebuild.

I know it's unthinkable to simply abandon a historic city like NO, but lets take a long look at what's involved...

In order to drain the city, the levies must first be repaired. This is no easy feat.
Then the water needs to be drained. This will take much longer than has been stated by Bush an Co. Worse, as this thread states, that water needs to go someplace and WILL BE toxic!
Even with that done, the next step will have to be finishing the destruction. No structure that has been touched by the flood waters will be fit for human habbitation. Thus, before any rebuilding can start, what's left needs to be flattened.

SO...
The city would have to start from scratch.

Would it not make more sense, in that case, to build it someplace where this ISN'T going to happen again?

(No structure that has been touched by the flood waters will be fit for human habbitation. Thus, before any rebuilding can start, what's left needs to be flattened.)






just thik about how many people are staying behind in houses full of mold,

[edit on 7-9-2005 by slayerfan]

Originally posted by SouljahAnd just when we thought that the Worse was Over...

The worst is not nearly over. Not only will there be the issue of disease in the immediate areas, but the spread of same as a result of the emptying of the inland waters into the lake and or river, which will disperse and therefore spread its toxic waste. Add to that the next nightmare, that of insurance coverage or lack thereof for home owners coupled with the fact that a large number will find that their homeowner insurance recovery will be forfeited to the mortgage holder. In short, many will be left with no asset and a debt on that destroyed asset.

The historic French Quarter is mostly above sea level and largely untouched by the flooding, I think they should restore that and have a new smaller New Orleans.