Effects of hurricane Katrina has been devastating. Mayor of New Orleans is saying thousands may be dead already. Damages to property and economy has been enormous. Not to mention the millions of dollars being spent on the rescue efforts now and rebuilding efforts that will be undertaken later. But the sad part is, most of the suffering was avoidable. It was know well ahead of time, the hurricane was coming and would be a strong one. It wreaked havoc even in south florida where it was barely a category 1 hurricane. In the face of these facts, some questions come to mind. - When it is known that New Orleans is so vulnerable, should not the leevees built stronger? When it is know that if they break the effect would be devastating, I would have made them 5 ft taller and 2 ft thicker.
- Shouldn't the shelters such as super dome buit so that it can withstand the strongest storm? One idea is to make them so that it can be lowered underground. I am not a civil engineer, but with todays technology it is not that impossible, I would think.
- Same thing can be said about highway over passes. During the storm, one can make them slidable and pillars can be slided into the ground as well. The parts that are over ground (bridges, over passes, etc) are slided to move on the ground, no storm can inflict much damage to them. Guess how much suffering and rebuilding would be saved, if we make these investments in the beginning.
- One can even imagine to build a small city underground. This may sound over kill now. But if they can do the above mentioned things, one can even think of this.
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