[meteorite-list] OT: New Orleans blamestorming

[Chris Peterson]

When the U.S. was settled, wood was cheap and abundant. One consequence of 
this was that stonework became a very specialized trade. This continues 
today; the vast majority of construction workers are not skilled in stone or 
concrete, and residential building inspectors- especially in rural areas- 
are largely clueless about how such structures work. It would obviously be 
wiser to build homes from such materials (especially in hurricane prone 
areas), but the infrastructure to do so simply isn't in place. There are 
parts of the country where brick is a common building material, but brick 
buildings (without underlying steel reinforcement) are not much more secure 
than wood.

Alternatives to wood are slowly becoming more available. As happened 
centuries ago in Europe, we are using up our inexpensive wood sources. I'm 
designing a house now which will largely be poured concrete, and the 
construction costs won't be much higher than for wood.

Of course, the folly of New Orleans is that it is a coastal city built below 
sea level. Much of the damage caused by Katrina was unrelated to the wind 
directly, and was produced by flooding. It doesn't much matter what your 
construction material is when the water rises. The smart thing to do would 
be simply to abandon the city. With sea levels rising for the next century 
or longer, large sections of the Gulf Coast and Florida are essentially 
doomed.

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Martin Altmann" <Altmann at Meteorite-Martin.de>
To: "Chris Peterson" <clp at alumni.caltech.edu>; 
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2005 8:08 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] OT: New Orleans blamestorming


> Something, what I never will understand, is, that so many homes in USA 
> also
> in the so called Hurricane Alley
> are made out of wood. Why not of stone?  Tradition? Price?
> Martin,
> the second of the Three Little Pigs