Hospitals & Asylums
Flood and Tornado Insurance from the
Deepwater Horizon Overpayment HA-16-5-11
By Anthony J. Sanders
Flooding
has occurred mostly in the lower Mississippi River in Illinois, Missouri,
Arkansas, Tennesse
Areas
in Flood May 16, 2011
Purple
Major Flood, Yellow Moderate Flood
The actual spot where the 2,541-mile Missouri River flows into the 2,320-mile Mississippi River is 10 miles to the north of St. Louis at Confluence Point State Park (Baker ’11). The flood crest along the Mississippi is forecast to move slowly downstream towards New Orleans during the next three weeks. The Mississippi River watershed is the fourth largest in world and drains approximately 41 percent of the United States. The White River, the Arkansas River, Big Black River are just a few major tributaries that may be impacted by the Mississippi main stem flooding. Interstate 40 west of Memphis between Hazen and Brinkley is closed in both directions due to the White River overflowing its banks. On May 16, 2011 the United States Geologic Service (USGS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that of a total of 4854 gauges in rivers around the nation there was flooding at 159 locations - 29 gauges reported major flooding, 33 gauges moderate flooding and 97 gauges minor flooding. The Mississippi River flows 2,340 mi (3,765 km) from its source at Lake Itasca in the Minnesota North Woods. The Missouri is longer than the Mississippi, but it is the Mississippi’s tributary. The Missouri does not reach the sea; the Mississippi does, a little south of New Orleans. Rivers by definition have to drain into an ocean, or at least salty water. When the Mississippi River is mentioned in the record books, what statisticians really mean is the Missouri-Mississippi River, and their combined lengths from the beginning of the Missouri to the end of the Mississippi. The Missouri’s source generally is regarded as the Jefferson River, a 77-mile river that starts in Montana, so the third-longest river technically is the Jefferson-Missouri-Mississippi River. Coast Guard disaster area response teams have rescued a total of 28 people and assisted four others in evacuating flood zones since the Mississippi River response began. The Army Corps of Engineers is working throughout the watershed (Baker ’11).
More gates of the Morganza
Spillway were opened Sunday May 15, 2011 as residents evacuated the Louisiana
floodplain.
Credit:
P.C. Piazza, Lafayette Daily Advertiser (May 15, 2011)
On May 14, 2011 the Mississippi: flood gates were opened on the Morganza Floodway. Opening the flood gates directs some water from the Mississippi into a less populated river basin to the west called Atchafalaya. The redirected water will flood towns and swamps in Southern Louisiana near the Gulf of Mexico but save big cities like Baton Rouge and New Orleans further south along the Mississippi. 25,000 people living in the Atchafalaya Basin are leaving before this man induced flood hits their towns. The Morganza Spillway is a controlled spillway because it uses a set of flood gates to control the volume of water entering the Morganza floodway below. It consists of a concrete weir, two sluice gates, seventeen scour indicators, and 125 gated openings which can allow up to 600,000 cubic feet per second (17,000 m3/s) of water to be diverted from the Mississippi. The Corps of Engineers maintains the structures and in times of flood monitors their piers for scouring and stability. US 190 crosses the spillway on a four-mile-long bridge in the southern part of Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. An old two-lane bridge, near Morganza, Louisiana, that forms part of Louisiana Highway 1 is used by the Corps of Engineers. If water from the flooding Mississippi is diverted into the Morganza Floodway and Atchafalaya Basin, a large area of southern Louisiana could be inundated. For there to be a release, there has to be a major flood with some areas downstream of the spillway flooding whether water passes the spillway or not. It is this "natural" flooding, combined with the additional water from the spillway release, that determines the extent of flooding throughout the Atchafalaya Basin. At risk in the area are Morgan City, various smaller populated places, many farms, and considerable swampland. Inhabitants know that the region is a natural floodplain,and written notices are issued annually to all interests reminding them of the possibility of operation of the floodway. Any decision to open the spillway must be carefully planned to give ample warning and protect life and property (BBC ’11).
Before
and After A Section of the Mississippi River
Credit: NASA
The Great Mississippi and Missouri Rivers Flood of 1993 (or "Great Flood of 1993") occurred in the American Midwest, along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their tributaries, from April to October 1993. The flood was among the most costly and devastating to ever occur in the United States, with $15 billion in damages, 50 people died, hundreds of levees failed, and thousands of people were evacuated, some for months. Approximately 100,000 homes were destroyed as a result of the flooding, 15 million acres (60,000 km²) of farmland inundated, and the whole towns of Valmeyer, Illinois, and Rhineland, Missouri, were relocated to higher ground. The hydrographic basin affected cover around 745 miles (1200 km) in length and 435 miles (700 km) in width, totaling about 320,000 square miles (840,000 km²). Within this zone, the flooded area totaled around 30,000 square miles (80,000 km²) and was the worst such U.S. disaster since the Great Flood of 1844, the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, or Great Flood of 1951 as measured by duration, square miles inundated, persons displaced, crop and property damage, and number of record river levels. Since the previous great flood, extensive leveeing had been carried out to keep more residential and agricultural areas protected (Larson ’96). US Army Corps of Engineers, North Central Division produced the Great Flood of 1993 Post-Flood Report: Upper Mississippi River and Lower Missouri River Basins in September 1994 (six volumes). The Flood of 2011 came earlier in the year than previous floods as the result of heavy rains and an early melt-off of heavy snow-pack. Although the complete damage estimates are not in yet it seems that the vast majority of damages have been contained to the northern Missouri River and below the Mississippi/Ohio convergence. There is run-off from snowpack in both the Appalachians and Montana Rockies, swollen by rains. It is earlier in the year than previous floods and depending on the weather could get worse or dry up.
1993
Missouri River Flood
Credit: Google Earth
Cleanup efforts from the Gulf Oil spill have been successful and gulf seafood is reported safe to eat, not that I would want to. Nonetheless we must attempt to redirect $5-10 billion of the $20- $40 billion appropriated from BP affiliates to the Gulf Economy for the Deepwater Horizon Response Solution. With flood damage estimates as high as $15 billion dollars the President should reallocate surplus oil revenues dedicated to cleanup effort in the Gulf to benefit those who were forced to relocate as the result of the flooding and whose property was damaged. We are particularly empathetic with the just compensation of those 25,000 residents who were forced to relocate because their valleys were intentionally flooded to spare oil refineries. Whereas the oil industry is clearly the cause of so much environmental degradation they should get used to sharing some of their profits with the victims of natural disasters. Although winter snows may have been particularly deep after a cold winter the petroleum processing chemical styrene has been implicated as a possible human cause of April’s Tornado Relief as well as a possible human cause of excessive snow melt. NASA satellites have been doing thermo graphic surveillance of the south and should probably extend their horizon to mountains in the north where snow run-off is triggering floods. Cloud seeding operations in North America must be strictly prohibited until the waters have subsided and cease to pose a hazard, and thereafter only in the direst of droughts, not to repeat Care Pakistan: The Seeds of Flood Relief. So far the only accomplishment Obama can claim during his administration is that he murdered his adversary Osama. Obama has not even discovered Bush’s hideout at 16USC(1)(I)§1a-7b and repealed everything after (a)(3). While this billion dollar transfer may not make Obama a more effective President than his predecessor, Obama may prove himself the more responsible oilman under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 33USC(40)§2718.
Styrene is a clear, colorless liquid, derived from petroleum and natural gas
by-products, that is a component of materials used to make thousands of
everyday products. 
The diversified U.S. styrene industry is worth
approximately $28-billion comprising hundreds of companies with thousands of
facilities that provide directly some 128,000 well-paying jobs throughout the
country. Polystyrene has long been known to cause serious negative impacts on
workers producing it, mainly increased levels of chromosomal damage, abnormal
pulmonary function and cancer in workers at polystyrene and styrene plants, as
well as pass to food to result in 100% positive test results in human consumers
and breast milk. In 1986, EPA ranked the 20 chemicals whose production
generated the most hazardous wasted. Polystyrene was number five. In 1989, the Department of Interior banned
polystyrene in its Washington, DC headquarters. The Canadian House of Commons
switched from polystyrene cups to china cups in committee and caucus rooms,
reducing the number of polystyrene cups used by 400,000 per year. GSA's Federal
Supply Service's New Item Introductory Schedule Class #8135 offers a
starch-based substitute for polystyrene packaging peanuts (Nader ’96). The Mayor of Cincinnati and the Styrene
Information and Research Center (SIRC)
joined together to extinguish a rail car full of styrene that reached
temperatures exceeding 1,000 ºF for week after it was ignited the night of Hurricane Katrina, exposing a previously
unknown threat to the environment. While
it is possible other chemicals or heating sources may have been used styrene is
quite suspicious in the April tornados and snow melt causing the
this flooding. While other
nuclear or chemical processes, such as expanding foam, are more likely to cause
earthquakes, surplus styrene may be the leading human cause of hurricane and
tornado damage. To discover if large
quantities of styrene might have been diverted a national hazardous substance
response plan should be drafted on the topic of styrene under 42USC(103)I§9605.
Parking
Lot of the Opry Mills Mall in Nashville, Tennessee flooded by the Cumberland
River May 4, 1010
CreCC Credit: AP Photo/Jeff Roberson
Crude oil fell and gasoline slipped to a two-month low after the opening of spillways reduced concern that the Mississippi River will flood refineries. Oil dropped 2.3 percent as Louisiana opened nine of the 125 gates at the Morganza floodway, allowing the Mississippi River to pour into the Atchafalaya River basin. The move was designed to save Baton Rouge and New Orleans from inundation. Louisiana refineries are the second-biggest fuel producers in the U.S., following Texas, according to the Energy Department. The Mississippi floodwaters threatened operations at 10 Louisiana refineries that account for about 14 percent of U.S. operating capacity. The diversion of water to the Atchafalaya River Basin has the potential to impact only one small oil refinery, which has been making preparations. The Atchafalaya River basin has 2,264 oil or natural gas wells that each day produces 19,278 barrels of crude, about 10 percent of Louisiana’s onshore total, and 252.6 million cubic feet of gas. Crude oil for June delivery fell $2.28 to $97.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest settlement since May 6. Futures have risen 36 percent in the past year. Gasoline for June delivery tumbled 14.33 cents, or 4.7 percent, to end the session at $2.9311 a gallon in New York. It was the lowest settlement since March 16. The price of gasoline climbed to $3.985 on May 4, the highest level since July 24, 2008. Regular gasoline at the pump, averaged nationwide, slipped 0.9 cent to $3.961 a gallon on May 15, 2011 (Shenk ’11). Brenda Hynum, left, hugs her daughter Debra Emery as she watches floodwaters rise around her mobile home in Vicksburg, Miss., Monday, May 16, 2011. A sand berm they built around their trailer failed in the night and floodwaters from the rising Mississippi river rushed in. Emery said, "We tried so hard to stop it. It goes from anger to utter disbelief that this could happen. I just want to go home."
Credit: (Dave Martin, AP)
Flooding
is the nation's most common natural disaster. The President must lead the
recovery from these natural disasters - the flooding and tornados. Or join, the Commission of Social Security
M.J. Astrue Esq., recused to six months in fat camp,
for writing both the $66.60 Medicare Premium of 2004, $666 SSI for three years
without COLA, and most recently depriving random beneficiaries of $100 a month
under 18USC(13)§246. The terms of
fat camp are a strictly vegan diet and a cross country course of more than two
miles daily. It is not enough to murder
Osama bin Ladin, Obama must ensure the American
people that the federal government provides the unemployed survivors of the
flooding and tornados with disaster benefit insurance, this Spring, under 42USC(68)IV§5177. Individuals usually petition the Federal
Emergency Management Administration (FEMA). Essential assistance programs are categorized
as follows (A) debris removal; (B) search and rescue, emergency medical care,
emergency mass care, emergency shelter, and provision of food, water, medicine,
and other essential needs, including movement of supplies or persons; (C)
clearance of roads and construction of temporary bridges necessary to the
performance of emergency tasks and essential community services; (D) provision
of temporary facilities for schools and other essential community services; (E)
demolition of unsafe structures which endanger the public; (F) warning of
further risks and hazards; (G) dissemination of public information and
assistance regarding health and safety measures; (H) provision of technical
advice to State and local governments on disaster management and control; and
(I) reduction of immediate threats to life, property, and public health and
safety. Federal
costs for flooding and tornadoes from Deepwater
Horizon overpayment under 33USC(40)§2718.
Bibliography
Baker, Terence. Confluence: the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. AAA Travel Views. April 19, 2011
Fleming, Ed Col. U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Spokesperson. Mississippi floods: Louisiana gates open to save cities. BBC News. May 15, 2011
Nader, Ralph. Eliminate the Use of Polystyrene. Making Governments Purchase Green. 1996
Larson, Lee W. The Great USA Flood of 1993. Destructive Water: Water-Caused Natural Disasters - Their Abatement and Control. National Weather Service. Annaheim, California. June 24-28 1996
Sanders, Tony J. Best Medicine Monograph. Hospitals & Asylums. HA-14-2-11
Sanders, Tony J. Care Pakistan: The Seeds of Flood Relief. Hospitals & Asylums HA-21-8-10
Sanders, Tony J. Customs House Act St. Elizabeth. Hospitals & Asylums HA-26-2-11
Sanders, Tony J. Deepwater Horizon Spill Response Solution. Hospitals & Asylums HA-8-6-10
Sanders, Tony J. Tornado Relief. Hospitals & Asylums HA-5-5-11
Shenk, Mark. Oil Falls on Ebbing Concern the Mississippi to Flood Louisiana
Refineries. Bloomberg May
16, 2011
Susman,
Tina; Muskal Michael. Obama in Memphis to Meet with Flood Victims. Los Angeles Times. May
16, 2011
United States Army Corps of Engineers, North Central Division. The
Great Flood of 1993 Post-Flood Report: Upper Mississippi River and Lower
Missouri River Basins. September 1994 (six volumes)