I need some help understanding something, folks. This story seems to be saying that yes indeed, the city is sinking at a pretty good pace.
“Picture a house in New Orleans that was built 10 years ago to meet the flood elevation. The home was damaged during Hurricane Katrina,” said Harvey surveyor Tildon Dufrene Jr. “The homeowner needs a new elevation certificate for the home to get the required permits for construction (but) the new certificate shows that the home is now 1 foot below the flood elevation. How can this be?”
Louisiana Society of Professional Surveyors members, who are facing a big storm-recovery workload, were taken aback last month with the publication of new elevation figures by the National Geodetic Survey, using so-called vertical monuments — brass plates cemented into hard surfaces at various locations. Based on a 2004 study of coastal Louisiana, the report pointed to a 3- to 10-inch drop in elevations of the local sites.
I’m not an engineer, so I have to confess that I don’t get it. Is this something completely different from what the “expert” said on 60 minutes?
Looks like a poorly-written story by an equally confused reporter who didn’t get the facts straight when the opportunity to ask an expert existed.
The new elevation data is being obtained using GPS.