Storm Surge

Everyone is up to their armpits in Katrina right now, not least of which are the poor unfortunates of the lower Mississippi Delta region caught in the middle of it. The biggest tragedy is of course the loss of life that occurred during the storm's impact and will no doubt increase with the rising flood waters. Almost as tragic is the destruction of people's homes and livelihoods, especially considering how economically tenuous that part of the country is these days.

Far down the list of tragedy is the damage done to many of the beautiful buildings in New Orleans, a city I have yet to see. There's something sad and shocking about seeing your landscape change for the worse, I think, and the presumed loss of many great old structures certainly makes me wish I had gone down with friends a few years back when I had the chance.

I know that many will be restored by their wealthy owners, and no doubt many more will be saved by federal/state emergency funds, but I imagine that in a city as poor as New Orleans many will just be torn down.

A stranger bit of structural damage occurred in Alabama during the storm when an oil rig in dock for repairs was wrenched free of it's moorings and crashed into this suspension bridge.

There's a better picture floating around on the web, but it's copy-protected somehow and I can't post it. That must've been a hell of a thing to see, huh? Like one building crashing into another.

Seeing that reminded me that I had heard somewhere about a floating airport that someone wanted to build. I know that a few congested Asian cities have built airports that either jut out into the harbor or are actually built on artificial islands, but this project for San Diego is just crazy.

The idea is to build a road out from the heart of the city to a floating structure that would act as both an airport and deep water marine terminal. I guess they don't have to worry about tropical storms too much out there, but the whole thing seems a bit dicey to me. Still they make some pretty strong arguments on the website, so who knows?

Just an FYI, I'll be on vacation for a few days in the piney woods of North Cackalacka for a few days, then I'll be back in NYC for a fake-ation for a couple more, so my AutoCAD output will be very light. I'll try to post some southern architectural pics from my trusty cell phone while I'm visiting.