{"id":1344,"date":"2013-09-11T08:37:54","date_gmt":"2013-09-11T12:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alexprudhomme.com\/?p=1344"},"modified":"2013-09-11T08:37:54","modified_gmt":"2013-09-11T12:37:54","slug":"big-easy-let-floods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alexprudhomme.com\/2013\/09\/11\/big-easy-let-floods\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Easy: “Let There Be Floods”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

New Orleans has a radical new plan for managing floods<\/h1>\n

By\u00a0John Upton<\/a>
\n<\/header>\n

\n
\"Jazz
Derek Bridges<\/a><\/figcaption>
New Orleans won\u2019t let a little rain kill its buzz.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Big Easy has a multibillion-dollar new philosophy for dealing with flooding:\u00a0Let it happen. (At least in some spots.)
\nNew Orleans is a low-lying city built on swampland, and its leaders are finally coming to terms with that hydrological reality. No longer will officials try to drain and pump out every drop of\u00a0excess<\/a>\u00a0water that falls or flows their way.
\nInstead, under\u00a0the\u00a0Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan<\/a>,\u00a0floodwaters would be corralled into areas that serve as parks during drier times. Rain gardens and\u00a0bioswales<\/a>\u00a0would help the earth suck up more of the rain that falls on it. And water would be funneled into year-round canals and ponds that support wildlife, improve soil quality, and generally pretty up the place.
\nThe plan, which was\u00a0developed in consultation with Dutch engineers<\/a>,\u00a0wouldn\u2019t shelter the city from catastrophic floods if its levees fail \u2014 as happened after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But it would help turn the region\u2019s heavy rainfall from a hazard into an asset.\u00a0That\u2019s becoming especially important<\/a>, with Louisiana enduring America\u2019s fastest rates of sea-level rise and experiencing increasingly intense downpours as the globe warms up.
\n\u201cWe know how to do this. We just forgot,\u201d Deputy Mayor Cedric Grantsaid at a ceremony<\/a>
\n 
\nfor the rest of the story see:\u00a0https:\/\/grist.org\/news\/new-orleans-has-a-radical-new-plan-for-managing-floods\/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=update&utm_campaign=socialflow
\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Orleans has a radical new plan for managing floods By\u00a0John Upton Derek BridgesNew Orleans won\u2019t let a little rain kill its buzz. The Big Easy has a multibillion-dollar new philosophy for dealing with flooding:\u00a0Let it happen. (At least in some spots.) New Orleans is a low-lying city built on swampland, and its leaders are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,12,14,4],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBig Easy: "Let There Be Floods" - Alex Prud'homme<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/alexprudhomme.com\/2013\/09\/11\/big-easy-let-floods\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Big Easy: "Let There Be Floods" - Alex Prud'homme\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"New Orleans has a radical new plan for managing floods By\u00a0John Upton Derek BridgesNew Orleans won\u2019t let a little rain kill its buzz. The Big Easy has a multibillion-dollar new philosophy for dealing with flooding:\u00a0Let it happen. (At least in some spots.) 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