Category: Places

Katrina comparisons

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date June 28, 2008

It is difficult to be sympathetic to people in Iowa and Missouri when you read some webloggers who gloat about how “well” their state did compared to how well the people did in New Orleans after Katrina. I think it’s time to take a closer look at events; to get some perspective on both events.

Early estimates put the number of damaged or lost homes in Iowa at about 8,000 to 10,000 homes, based on the number of displaced people. I estimate from the numbers I’ve heard in the last few weeks that Missouri will end up with about 500 to 1000 damaged or destroyed homes.

The number of homes destroyed by Katrina varies widely, but I’ve seen estimates from 275,000 to over 850,000 homes, many of them in New Orleans. In fact, 80% of the city was impacted, and only 45% of the New Orleans population has been able to return to New Orleans, years after the storm.

I couldn’t find numbers of people killed in the recent floods here in the midwest, but from an old estimate, we lost about 30 people. Over 1836 people died from Katrina, and the long term impact of the flood could result in thousands more dying.

Though we like to think floods along the Mississippi are sudden, this one was not. We had all the indications of a bad flood building up along the Mississippi beginning in April. The people impacted by New Orleans had three days, four tops, to prepare.

The people in Missouri and Iowa were not cut off and isolated. Most had neighbors and friends who helped. The people in New Orleans were shoved into a coliseum or left marooned on damaged bridges, as the surrounding communities would not let them leave the city. Why? Because rumors talked about roving bands of thugs shooting everything in sight; rumors proven to be untrue, but still persisting in places like Wikipedia—an article I nominate for being the worst edited, most inaccurate, and outdated article in Wikipedia. These people were left without water and food, in intense heat for days. No comfortable Red Cross shelters for them.

River floods like the recent flooding in the Midwest impact across class lines, especially after the federal buy outs resulting from the the 1993 flood. The flood in New Orleans impacted on some of the poorest people in this country. People who were then bused as far away as Salt Lake City, and cut adrift.

This recent flooding is terrible, and I don’t want to downplay the awfulness of the event, or the extent of the damage and the help that will be needed to rebuild in Iowa and Missouri. At the same time, it angers me to see those pontificating in how “better” we handled the flood than the folks handled Katrina in New Orleans and the rest of the south. Especially when the purpose for such comparisons is politically, and even racially, motivated.

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Places

DC Weblog

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date August 8, 2007

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Missouri folks: rest of you close your eyes

Missourinet posts a note that Lorna Domke from the Department of Conservation is starting a weblog. One of her first stories is on Pickle Springs. (Remember when I wrote on Pickle Springs? Back, when I used to have a life?)

Ms. Domke does need to find her own ‘voice’, but that will come in time. I’ve added her weblog to my reading and am looking forward to more. Well, maybe not more stories on hunting and fishing, but that goes with the conservation territory.

Environment Places

Ameren and the shame that is Taum Sauk

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date June 4, 2007

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

A couple of days ago, the Southeast Missourian did a fluff piece on how important Ameren is to the Lesterville school system:

Earlene Fox, superintendent of the Lesterville School District, said many entities are trying to decide how much to fine Ameren, turning the issue into a political hot button.

Meanwhile the livelihood of Lesterville’s residents is in jeopardy as a result of the December 2005 breach at the Taum Sauk Reservoir that caused significant flooding in the Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park.

This has been typical of Ameren, getting friendly folk in Reynolds County to trot out the Lesterville school system and jobs in order to put pressure on the political figures running for governor–Attorney General Nixon and Governor Blunt–to settle the Ameren/Taum Sauk situation quickly. What’s different is that both Nixon and Blunt are working together on the issue of a fine for Ameren, so why is the school system being dutifully trotted out this time?

Well, the answer came out today, in a story released by the AP and appearing in papers and other publications in the country (and outside the country). According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the gauges that were supposed to turn off the pumping station when the water was high and in danger of overtopping the dam were not faulty: they had been deliberately moved.

Yes, basically the safety measures to prevent the dam from breaking were deliberately circumvented by Ameren officials. Why? Money. More water meant more profitable electricity being generated.

Interviews with Ameren employees by The Associated Press over the past year have confirmed Ameren’s practice of filling the reservoir as high as possible because every foot of water represented profitable electricity generation. That sentiment was also made clear in the patrol’s report.

Taum Sauk Superintendent Richard Cooper told patrol investigators he felt pressure from his bosses after he ordered the water level to be slightly lowered to prevent an overflow in October 2005.

“Cooper stated that he had people above him and below him that wanted to know what was going on. Since the upper reservoir was set two feet lower, that was resulting in producing less mega watts (sic) of electricity,” the report said.

The amount of water that rushed down the mountain when the dam broke, a billion gallons, was five times of the amount of water of the Johnston Flood, the worst ‘natural’ disaster to impact this country. If the Taum Sauk dam break had happened in summer, hundreds of people would have died. If the lower reservoir had not held, whether the Lesterville school has a new roof or not would be moot.

All of this, so that the Ameren officials could pump in an additional two feet of water, and generate that much more electricity. Even when officials knew of the risk involved.

In addition to tampering with the safety equipment, the evidence was tampered with after the break, as the gauges were removed from the dam and left lying next to the wall before Ameren ‘allowed’ DNR agents in to examine them. Ameren also refused to provide requested evidence to the State Patrol.

No criminal charges are being filed because the State Patrol supposedly cannot find the person who moved the gauges originally, or removed them from the wall after. Of course not: Ameren isn’t cooperating, and wasn’t forced to cooperate.

Neither Nixon, in his position as Attorney General, nor Governor Blunt are pursuing any further investigation, though obviously criminal actions have taken place–and continue to take place, with Ameren refusing to provide materials demanded by the State Patrol. After the public relations campaign run by Ameren and supported by some community leaders in Reynolds County, to do so is to brand both as being ‘against schools’. With an upcoming election, neither the Republican candidate nor the Democratic has the courage to seek true justice.

I’m sure, though, that Ameren will provide a nice visitor center at Johnson’s. Maybe a new gym for the school, too. The company is such a good servant of the people.

Update.

The Public Service Commission, which recently granted Ameren’s request for a rate increase in Missouri, have re-opened their investigation of Ameren’s conduct based on the AP story.

Ameren has come out with its own press release, stating that the story did not have any new information from that of the FERC report a year earlier.

However, there is considerably new information: the FERC report focused primarily on the physical evidence and repercussions of decisions made. At no time was economic motivation discussed, nor was the fact that the gauges were removed after the dam break recorded — or at least not as far as I can see in the report.

Should there be more investigation? This state seems incapable of dealing with this situation and Ameren. I imagine the best anyone can hope for is to hit Ameren where it will hurt–the company’s pocketbook–and then keep the company on a short leash. A very short leash.

Tags Taum Sauk

History Photography Places

Switzer

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date May 15, 2007

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Sunday, I discovered that the Switzer Building was being destroyed starting on the 14th; the first wrecking ball would fall at 10pm. This was my last chance to take pictures of the building I’ve come to be fond of.

As I was taking pictures, others would show up from time to time: to look at the building, to reminisce, and take pictures, themselves. A person I talked with on the Eads Bridge mentioned about visiting the riverfront and the licorice aroma that would gentle pervade the area. Another person I ran into at the base of the building talked about his family being here before the building was created, and how too many of these unique buildings are now gone.

With the images below, I’ve included links to other sites with more on the Switzer Building, and other buildings at risk in St. Louis. Many of these sites have pictures far superior to mine, so don’t judge my photos too harshly. I had hoped to find an image of the building when licorice was still being manufactured at the premises, but no luck.

First, though, a couple of photos of what the building was like before the storm damage that doomed it.

Switzer before damage

The rest of the photos were taken Sunday, May 13th.

Side of building

The Damaged side

Full view of damaged side

Front cast iron work

Building Number

Smile You Being Watch

Three quarter front view

The Ecology of Absence web site

Ecology of Absence weblog entry on the building

Urban St. Louis thread on the Switzer Building

Vanishing St. Louis post on the building.

Built St. Louis Switzer page

St. Louis Today article on the building damage

LaClede’s Landing Walking Tour

Switzer Sign from Fading Ad

Photography Places

Mississippi Runneth

Post author By Shelley Powers
Post date May 14, 2007

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

The Missouri river flooding is enough to raise the Mississippi, though not to the same levels. The water along the St. Louis waterfront rose to the level of the road, but luckily no further. Enough, though, to drown the area where I normally park, as these two pre-flood and flood pictures demonstrate.
Flooded waterfront in St. Louis

The water level was 29 feet above normal levels, which is one hell of a lot of water. However, unlike the Missouri, barge traffic was still moving on the Mississippi. I was lucky to be on the Eads Bridge just as one moved beneath, giving a nice birds eye view.

In September, 2006, the city installed a new statue dedicated to the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial. It stands 23 feet tall, and is installed just below the Eads Bridge, along the lower portion of the waterfront. All that showed above the water was Captain Lewis, waving his hat triumphantly.

The top view of the statue shows the swirls and eddies in the water. This is an incredibly dangerous river anyway, but with the flooding, if you fell in you wouldn’t be getting out.

No one was killed with this flood, though the damage was extensive in the north and west. It served as a reminder that Missouri is a state bound and threaded by rivers, and that we live here at the sufferance of nature.

Tags Missouri