Regarding Those Levees, Let Me Break Out My Tin-Foil Hat And My Crystal Ball

By Jim Schutze Thu., Apr. 1 2010 at 10:03 AM

Categories: Schutze

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In the weeks ahead I'm going to be tied up with some stories that will demand a lot of my time, so, I'm sorry, I'm just not going to have time to do my regularly predictable clockwork swat-down reaction pieces to Dallas Morning News stories on the Trinity River project. I wondered if it would be OK, under the circumstances, for me to do the next one in advance. Here's what I mean:

In today's News there is a very balanced and thorough piece by City Hall reporters Rudy Bush and Steve Thompson on the Metro front, "Levees receive more time," about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers giving Dallas an additional year to repair the levees that protect downtown from Trinity River flooding. (The letter from the Corps, sent by City Hall yesterday, follows in its entirety.)

The story is accurate, as far as I can tell, in describing the relationship between levee repair and the looming necessity in many parts of the city for buying flood control insurance since the levees don't work any more. It sort of leaves out the fact that the big issue ultimately is not insurance but floods, since insurance can't kill you but floods can. But, for The News, it's a pretty good job at telling most of the truth.

Therefore, the story exposes a bit of truth that runs counter to the official line at The News: that voters shouldn't think about serious things like floods, because such thoughts may cause wrinkle lines to appear on their faces. Instead, voters should think about the pretty European bridges and sailboat lakes they have been promised if they will just go along with allowing a super-highway to be built out between the levees where it will contribute to, yes, a certain amount of flooding, but so what?

This means that soon -- at least by Sunday -- we will see either a Steve Blow or James Ragland column, an op-ed piece by Colleen McCain Nelson or an unsigned editorial saying, "Flood control levees not that important." Or, "Forget levees." Or, "Levees none of your business." Or, "Please, Sweetie, just think about your new lake."

In advance, then, I would like to offer my predictable clockwork swat-down saying that The Dallas Morning News is a Soviet-style organ of propaganda, the real issue is flooding, the floods are coming, and I urge you to build a boat 300 cubits long and 50 cubits broad.

So, just do it. Build the big boat.

Remember, you heard it here first, in fact even before they said it over there. Hope this covers things. I can't imagine there will be a departure from the normal pattern.USACE Approval Letter PL 84-99

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again, I submit that if you NEED to know what happens when you build something CONCRETE in an existing WATERWAY in Dallas, go talk to Roscoe Betz. He sued - and won - against City Hall for causing flooding to his property.
If you just believe in unicorns, nothing bad will ever happen to you. Tom "Chief Unicorn" Leppert
Now there you go again Jim. Can you for once simply listen to the song American Pie? "Went to the levy, but the levy was dry..." You have made a cottage industry of this fear mungering - The Levies will fail, we can't have a tollway, the bridges are bad, we can't afford it, the DMN is conspiring..... on and on you go... Everything will be alright. -W
Unless the mayor finds a lot of buckets of money lying around somewhere, the repairs to the levees will require a city bond election. The voters will have to be begged to give the city even more more to throw down the "Black Hole" known as the Trinity River Project. If you figure the time it takes to run an election, hire consultants, get public input on the project, environmental study, Army Corps of Engineers ok etc., this levees will not be fixed in a year. So, everyone who has pushed for the tollroad including Belo will have to buy very expensive flood insurance. Because the last big flood 1908 flooded downtown Dallas. It can take years just to widen a street in Dallas let alone fix the levee system. P.S. I look at the river level every day from the DART train. The level has been high most of the winter. The ground is saturated. All it will take is a very wet April & May to create flooding potential inside and outside of the levees.
Wanna Know: You're right. The issue is buried way back at the beginning of things, but the Corps should be obligated to address it in its evaluation of the toll road plans. It's all about water velocity and "scour," but also about crowding the floodway. The city claims it can make the toll road design hydrologiclaly "neutral" by digging the channel down deeper to make up for the loss of breadth. But that still gives you less surface area, so that all of the trees and stuff going down a flooded floodway will have to pass thorugh a more narrow channel and pile up more against the bridge footings, unless you cna eliminate the footings. Now we know that the rest of the Calatrava bridges can't be built because of money. So somebody has got to go back and look at the issues of velocity, scouring and crowding assuming we're keeping the bridges we've got. I also spoke once to the guy who built the levees in the 50s. He told me if you dig the channel down deeper through downtown, you've got to keep digging it all the way down halfway to Gun Barrel City to keep from steepening the grade too much.
I believe the suspension bridges came about because a civil engineering consultant hired by the city manager massively under estimated the maximum potential velocity of flood water resulting from the project, rendering the existing bridges.....unsuitable. I may be mistaken, but I believe Jim wrote something about this years ago.
Wasn't the prime objective to build a park surrounding a bunch of beautiful lakes made from the Trinity River as it rolls through Dallas. Then they added a Toll Road down the river bottom to help sell the project. Then they pictured some solar powered boats in the lakes to offer the voters some extra sizzle. Then they suggested that the Spanish bridge designer's influence would add some icing on to the cake.
This just shows the difference between Rudy Bush, who does a pretty decent job within the confines of the prison-house of Belo, and hacks like Lindenberger and the other stooges you mention.
Its ironic that the City of Dallas doggedly pursues this massive construction and development plan for the Trinity River flood plain, yet refuses to acknowledge the area is susceptible to flooding. The city's priorities seem to be: 1. toll road 2. pretty bridges 3. parks 4. lakes 5. other river related stuff Seems to me FLOOD CONTROL should be the Prime Objective, and everything else should be subordinate to the Prime Objective. Besides, who wants to hang out in a park located in what is really just an enormous drainage ditch for a stagnant, muddy river, when they could instead hang out at a deck park built over a major freeway, sandwiched between mirror clad high rise buildings?
Maybe when the flood comes it will wash away the sad wreckage of Reunion Arena now visible in the satellite view of Dallas on Google Maps.
Those Hobby Lobby folks are so crafty. Maybe they can help build the real ark instead of just the ones you tinker with in a bottle. I enjoy Thelisma Partridge's train of thought and go one further...a Bible Museum in a town destined to flood..are we preparing for The End of Days? Maybe those Hobby Lobby folks know a thing or two about these darned levees!
After the new ark is built, it can go to the Bible Museum
Can we fix it? Yes, we can! @ Richard--Yeah, I'll agree pretty scary stuff in RI. And to think, they're accustomed to much more rain there than in Dallas. But, see we've got a real chance to fix things here before an event happens. Instead, we've got this rush-rush hurry-hurry mentality and we're not supposed to look behind the curtain to glimpse the wizard. When all hell breaks loose we won't be humming "There's no place like home."
Speaking of big boats, it's a little-known fact that the future convention center hotel (conveniently located next to Belo World) is designed to float. Draw your own analogies...
Jimbo -- when the flood comes, we should ask if we can use the empty heads of the DMN writers mention as flotation devices.
Come on Jim - what's next, Rhode Island is going to have a 200 year flood. I call B.S. on all of your scare tactics. This flood stuff is way overblown. Just ask our friends in R.I.
Somehow I see the Beloans aboard the ark looking like cowardly Chairman of The White Star Line Bruce Ismay as he sneaked off the sinking Titanic. "The press knows the size of Titanic. Now I want them to marvel at her speed. We must give them something new to print! This maiden voyage of Titanic must make headlines!"
You sent me to the Book of Genesis on that one, Alan. It's pretty clear: Two "of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth." I think we gotta ride with the Beloans.
Jim, do we have to put two Belo-ites on the ark?
Great Jim; I'm sure you're right and I'll look for the next installment of the News's next installment of the campaign.
Does the boat need to be solar powered?
Kind of like leaking levees...the truth takes awhile to seep out. I guess we should be happy we're getting little nuggets in drips and drabs from DMN. I rather see an expose'...but I'll take what I can get. Even Pravda fell in the end.