live in galveston, texas, . this is called the coastal spine proposal, there are many figures floating around as to how much it will cost. six, 18, 11, $15 billion, that s a whole lot money but not really say proponents of the system when you consider how much money the government spends on hurricane and flooding relief. those in support of this giant structure say it will also protect extremely valuable assets to the region, like the houston ship channel. one of the busiest in the u.s. the concept rather simple, build a series of flood walls and levees in addition to a huge gate that could be closed prior to a hurricane, protecting the seaport and coastal communities from deadly storm surge. we are talking about saving people s lives, saving jobs and communities. a lot of people are doing hand-wringing.
backups and roads that are that are covered with water that could be potentially dangerous. but the city proper as far as the mississippi river and the flood walls, they re holding tight at this point. some of the worse hit communities around 20 miles north of st. louis, where the mississippi and missouri rivers converge, specifically west alton with that video there. talk to me about the efforts. members of the red cross to help, offering community places to stay just to make sure that they re okay going through this. yes. there s a coordinated effort with the state of missouri, state of illinois, army corps, many displaced and have entire living areas with that are being evacuated because of the water. the high water. very close to st. louis just to
to. what happened physically? did the levees were they not strong enough, poorly designed? did someone cut corners? why did the thing not work? there s a lot of debate about this. as a matter of fact, the authors of the berkeley report just recently reported in an update they had been, the corps of engineers had disassembled them about whose decision it was to create this particular system with the flood walls lining the canals. they were trying to blame the local new orleans levee board but it turns out by e-mails that the corps made the decision because it was a cheaper way of doing things. a cheaper option. there were a lot of vectors of failure. the flood walls at the 17th avenue canal were supposed to have been under girded by steel in the ground. the corps said it should be 17 feet in the ground. the contractor said that s not deep enough. you are just hitting muck, not
sand this way, do you drown when the tide rushes up and covers the beach? we re all about to find out. all of us. because tomorrow in the united states congress, the republican-controlled house is about to take up a bill to have the whole country go la, la, la, la, la, when it comes to understanding what s happening to the planet right now and how we might plan to survive it. today the intergovernmental panel on climate change released its latest international consensus scientific report saying, in effect, that the effects of climate change are already being felt around the globe. everything from droughts in the mediterranean, to sea ice collapsing in the far north which is eroding the coastline. adaptations around the world include everything from needing to raise flood walls already and sea barriers, it some coastal communities moving themselves away from the sea or at least making plans to move away from the sea soon. so that international report came out today and it is scary stuff
republican-controlled house is about to take up a bill to have the whole country go la, la, la, la, la, when it comes to understanding what s happening to the planet right now and how we might plan to survive it. today the intergovernmental panel on climate change released its latest international consensus scientific report saying, in effect, that the effects of climate change are already being felt around the globe. everything from droughts in the mediterranean, to sea ice collapsing in the far north which is eroding the coastline. adaptations around the world include everything from needing to raise flood walls already and sea barrrs it tmselves aw t fromhe sea or at least making plans to move away from the sea soon. so that international report came out today and it is scary stuff. the effects of global warming and climate change have already started. what hope to we have of reversing these changes? what hope do we have of adapting to deal with them if we can t reverse them? this i