Gulf Eats Away at Coast Outside Levee-Protected New Orleans

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Sand Levee, Rock Levee, Ocean, Beach and Oil Rigs…Port Fourchon, Louisiana, Jefferson Parish. Photo source: © © New Orleans Lady
“Seventy percent of the Gulf of Mexico shoreline is vulnerable to extreme erosion during even the weakest hurricanes, according to a 2012 report by the U.S. Geological Survey. USGS

Excerpts;

In the past century, more than 1,880 square miles of Louisiana land has turned into open water — an area nearly the size of Delaware. And the loss continues unabated, with an estimated 17 square miles disappearing on average each year.

Over the past 50 years, scientists say a series of factors — most of them man-made — have caused the rapid loss of wetlands…

Read Full Article, AP / Yahoo News

Lost Louisiana: The Race to Reclaim Vanished Land Back From The Sea, Guardian UK (10-15-2014)
Louisiana has lost nearly 1,900 square miles of land over the past 80 years – a disappearing act that claims on average a football field an hour. Now, World’s fastest submerging state is looking to nature in an ambitious plan to turn back the tide…

Louisiana’s Moon Shot, ProPublica (12-09-2014)
The state hopes to save its rapidly disappearing coastline with a 50-year, $50 billion plan based on science that’s never been tested and money it doesn’t have. What could go wrong?..

Oral Histories Capture Impact of Eroding Louisiana Coast, AP / KSL (11-08-2014)

Big Bill for Levee Upkeep Comes to New Orleans, AP / ABC News (11-28-2012)

Walls Around our Coastal Cities? By Gary Griggs

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Northwest Turtle Bay Marsh Creation, Louisiana. Photo source: ©© United States Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS)

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