This page lets you see just how bad the New Orleans flooding was by letting you superimpose a map of the New Orleans flood zone on a map of Boston. Imagine if we were flooded from the harbor to Sudbury.
I think it's more a way to show you just how widespread the flooding is, in terms we can recognize (I never realized how large New Orleans was geographically; yeah, guess I'm too parochial). But while Boston is not a bowl, think of how much of our lives depend on things that are underground - all of which could be flooded by another Hurricane of '38-type storm: Subways, the Big Dig, the Harbor tunnels, utilities, etc. In 1996, the MBTA alone had to spend, what, $60 million or so repairing damage from when the Muddy River flooded. The Muddy River!
Well, it's something to consider to put the size and land area of the flooding into perspective. If I were the Globe and I made cool little interactive things like this, I would work with a GIS program or perhaps the staff at like Salem State college to make a more accurate representation of the flooding. Taking into account the hills, the fact that the water is all on the east and would never flood that deeply west... I would have put more scientific thought into it.
But it does give the geographically challenged an idea of how big NOLA is and the area impacted in reference to our little square of the world.
Now I'm running away to Vermont. Seeya!
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One little difference....
Aside from my part of town, which is built on landfill atop a bay, our corner of the world isn't built in a bowl, beneath sea level.
So, yes, that's horrible widespread destruction. But it's not going to happen here. At least not that way.
True ...
I think it's more a way to show you just how widespread the flooding is, in terms we can recognize (I never realized how large New Orleans was geographically; yeah, guess I'm too parochial). But while Boston is not a bowl, think of how much of our lives depend on things that are underground - all of which could be flooded by another Hurricane of '38-type storm: Subways, the Big Dig, the Harbor tunnels, utilities, etc. In 1996, the MBTA alone had to spend, what, $60 million or so repairing damage from when the Muddy River flooded. The Muddy River!
interesting
Well, it's something to consider to put the size and land area of the flooding into perspective. If I were the Globe and I made cool little interactive things like this, I would work with a GIS program or perhaps the staff at like Salem State college to make a more accurate representation of the flooding. Taking into account the hills, the fact that the water is all on the east and would never flood that deeply west... I would have put more scientific thought into it.
But it does give the geographically challenged an idea of how big NOLA is and the area impacted in reference to our little square of the world.
Now I'm running away to Vermont. Seeya!