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;
There is a lot of water in southern Louisiana right now. But the climate science prognosis doesn’t look good. This is the eighth time in about a year that 500-year rainfall has hammered the U.S., and climate change will make extreme weather events like this more common.
“Instead of constantly rebuilding for the next disaster, it’s much smarter to use federal dollars to build safer and build back,” says Lemaitre. As climate change risks climb and insurance costs rise to reflect reality, the shoreline of Louisiana will change, too: fewer buildings on the coast, and a lot more houses on stilts…
Read Full Article, Newsweek (08-18-2016)
Louisiana Flood of 2016 resulted from ‘1,000-year’ rain in 2 days, NOLA (08-15-2016)
Coastal Louisiana added to NOAA Sea Level Rise Viewer, NOAA (12-21-2015)
Scientists, regional managers, coastal planners, businesses and residents of Louisiana can now use NOAA’s popular Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding Impacts Viewer to assess their risks for coastal flooding under a variety of different scenarios…
Gulf Eats Away at Coast Outside Levee-Protected New Orleans, AP (09-14-2015)
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…
Piling sand to stop erosion ultimately made the land sink, study says; NOLA (12-26-2015)
Louisiana Rethinks Its Sand Berms, The New York Times (11-09-2010)
A new study underscores the unique difficulties Louisiana faces in maintaining its fragile delta and keeping the sea at bay: Researchers found work to replenish an eroding shoreline by pumping onto it massive amounts of sand itself caused the land to sink…
Lost Louisiana: The Race to Reclaim Vanished Land Back From The Sea, Guardian UK (10-15-2014)
Louisiana’s Moon Shot, Propublica (12-09-2014)
Oral Histories Capture Impact of Eroding Louisiana Coast, AP / KSL (11-08-2014)
New Land on the Louisiana Coast, NASA (02-17-2015)
While most of the delta plain of the Mississippi River Delta is losing ground, new land is forming in Atchafalaya Bay at the mouths of the Wax Lake Outlet and the Atchafalaya River…
