Rich Grise on Sat, 14 May 2011 19:55:34
-0700 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:
Gunner Asch wrote:
On Fri, 13 May 2011 23:22:01 -0500, Ignoramus21553

As we all know, Mississippi's flood defenses are full right now and
the authorities are flooding Peter to help Paul.

It is all good and well. But, if an earthquake occurs that is similar
to what happened in New Madrid in 19th century (see Wikipedia), pretty
much all levees will collapse and a enormous area would be flooded in
an instant.

You say that like its a bad thing.....?

I've been through that area, and the floodplain is farmland; this time of
year it will flood out their crops, they'll take a bath, but next year
they'll have an incredible bumper crop with the new coating of silt and
last year's drowned plants for topsoil. And if it dries out in time, they'll
probably make a pretty good showing planting some later-season crops, like
squashes and stuff.

In the lower really really poor reaches of Mississippi, I've seen houses
on stilts, so a flood is like ho-hum.

I've seen homesteads where the house was on a barge (floated in
during an annual flood), with pilings to keep it in place. During the
flood times, the house floats, tethered by the pilings - the rest of
the time it just rests on the ground. Of course, these places usually
are into he backwaters of the flood, so there isn't a lot of current.

tschus
pyotr
--
pyotr filipivich
We will drink no whiskey before its nine.
It's eight fifty eight. Close enough!