In Central Florida, sinkholes are a growing crisis. The causes of these sinkholes are numerous, but one of the main causes is because of Florida’s karst topography. According to the Oxford Dictionary, karst topography is “Landscape underlain by limestone that has been eroded by dissolution, producing ridges, towers, fissures, sinkholes, and other characteristic landforms.” Although sinkholes form unexpectedly without much warning, there are ways to prevent harm to people in Florida. Some ways to prevent sinkholes from causing harm and destruction is through methods of stabilization such as grouting, compaction grouting, underpinning, and remediation. Repairing a sinkhole can be terribly expensive, so choosing the right method is crucial when restoring sunken landscape.
Sinkholes are an issue because of all the problems such as destruction to land, harm to civilians, and the cost of damages that sinkholes create. Sinkholes have a very broad spectrum because they can range from small land surfaces to covered collapse sinkholes (Phelps). According to the US Geological Survey, (USGS) 130 sinkholes formed across the region in dangerous places such as under interstates. Sinkholes are a natural part of Florida’s landscape, but with the growth of Florida’s population the more water is being used from 8 to 20 million (Gupta). According to Susan Martin and Dan DeWitt, “The number of residential sinkhole claims filed with Citizens Property Insurance Corp., which insures more Florida homeowners than any other company, has nearly tripled in the past five years, from 1,482 claims in 2007 to 4,024 last year. The average claim now costs Citizens nearly $90,000.”
According to Orlando Sentinel, the definition of what a sinkhole is a depression th...
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...d. Although there is not much to prevent a sinkhole from forming, the ways to warn and prevent harm are possible. With the help of geologist, research teams, constructors, contractors, architects, and many more, there are numerous resources available to residents, home and business owners in case of sinkhole incident. There are sinkhole repair services such as LRE Ground Services that will educate on sinkhole formation, give a free estimate of a price to repair a sinkhole, and then finish the job by repairing the sinkhole with one of many of their methods. These methods of stabilizing a sinkhole consist of compaction grouting, underpinning, and many more. Living in Central Florida, one should be aware of their surroundings. Educate yourself in the case of such an incident arising, so you can be prepared to face the challenges instead of being swallowed up by them.
New Orleans, Louisiana lies at the second lowest elevation among major cities in the United States. It is a city surrounded by water, making it almost like an island. To counter this dangerous combination of the low elevation along with the lakes, rivers and swamps surrounding it, the Army Corps of Engineers built a series of levees around the city to foster its protection. It is these very same levees however that might doom the city should a Category 3 hurricane ever hit. Our statistical analyses examined the current belief that there is a 39% probability that New Orleans will be hit by a major hurricane and based on the resulting Z-score, rejected that belief. We did find however that the probability, while not 39%, was still in the 30th percentile range, which should still be a major cause for concern among the leaders and residences of the city of New Orleans.
Mr. Flint’s comments were discussing what could happen during collective bargaining with employees’ pay and benefits, which is his opinion. Moreover, David Walsh writes, “Employers can make predictions about the likely consequences that unionization will have for the business—consequences that are objectively because of economic reality that is beyond the employer’s control.” (Walsh, 2013-2016, pg. 511) However, Mr. Flint’s comments were discussing a decrease in pay and less benefits, which could be construed as a threat.
Gabrysh, R. K. "Land surface subsidence in the Houston-Galveston region." IASH Publ. (1969): pp. 43-44.
This is a very critical situation that needs to be fixed urgently. The habitats of the Everglades depend on an annual water cycle which has been hindered by the development construction which was imposed on the farmland. Back in the 19th century, developers were keen on draining all the swamps in the Everglades for developmental purposes. Their intention was to grow sugarcane plantations on the land yet sugarcanes are highly destructive to the Everglades. They too disrupt the water cycle to which the wildlife has adapted. The Florida sugar industry built on the southern Shore of Lake Okeechobee directly clocks the water source for the remaining Everglades hence destroying the habitats of the wildlife existing in the affected areas.
In the late summer of 2005, a terrible tragedy occurred that changed the lives of many in the south-east region of the United States. A Category 3, named storm, named Hurricane Katrina, hit the Gulf Coast on the 29th of August and led to the death of 1,836 and millions of dollars’ worth of damage (Waple 2005). The majority of the damage occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana. Waple writes in her article that winds “gusted over 100 mph in New Orleans, just west of the eye” (Waple 2005). Not only was the majority of the damage due to the direct catastrophes of the storm but also city’s levees could no longer hold thus breaking and releasing great masses of water. Approximately, 80% of the city was submerged at sea level. Despite the vast amount of damage and danger all throughout the city, officials claimed that there was work being done to restore the city of New Orleans as a whole but many parts, and even the people, of the city were overlooked while areas of the city with higher economic value, and more tourist traffic, were prioritized along with those individuals.
The Florida Everglades have been slowly and steadily diminishing in size for over many decades. Throughout the years, the Everglades have had an abundant, healthy environment. The massive swamps were once rich with marshland, and had ecosystems chock-full of wildlife. However, due to large corporations, natural disasters and most importantly, the growth of the human population, the Everglades are 50% smaller than they were hundreds of years ago. The destruction of the Florida Everglades includes not only a diminishing number of the marshland, but also the lessening of wild life, such as alligators, herons, and exotic plants. While there is a government plan set for the restoration of the everglades, it will take many years to make up for the
Protecting the Everglades is as easy as spreading the word. Tell friends about the concerns you may have, tell them what they can do to help. Contact environmentally active organizations for more information. Be sure to keep these environmental issues in mind when voting, and go ahead and make your concerns known to your legislature. Try your hardest to make a difference!
The category 3 storm changed the lives of the residence who lived there forever. The storm in combination with the fault of the man-made flood protection walls (levee’s) resulted in the death of at least 1,300 people (1). With nearly half the victims over the age of 74, deaths were caused by; drowning, injury/ trauma and heart conditions (2). Hurricane Katrina was one of the most costliest storms to land on American soil, costing around US$135 billion in damages (3). Although the number of deaths caused by Hurricane Katrina are not as high as other natural disasters, Katrina displaced a massive amount of people from their homes, around 85% of the population were displaced directly after the storm hit (6). Being one of the most devastating natural disasters to hit the United States, Hurricane Katrina impacted not only the residence of New Orleans by also many of the surrounding
The alligators move in and out of holes (depressions) in the limestone described above. By doing this, they keep this area lower than the rest of the limestone.... ... middle of paper ... ... Federal, state, and local governments are joining forces to bring these pristine natural lands back to their original splendor and beauty.
They had to change and rebuild things after the sinkhole just like they did with Hurricane Sandy. After the Sinkhole some of the students had to move to Tangerine because there wasn’t enough space for everyone at Lake Windsor without the portables. Old Charley burns, the boss of the civil engineering company, was fired. He didn’t check and make sure that the places were safe to be building things on. He was bribed; he got vacations out of it. Since Charley Burns was fired, Paul’s dad replaced him. Paul’s dad told everybody that with him now the boss things were going to change. He wasn’t going to be bribed, and he was actually going to check and make sure that the places people were building things on were safe, and they weren’t building things on sinkholes.
Florida became a state in 1845 and almost immediately people began proposing to drain the Everglades. In 1848, a government report said that draining the Everglades would be easy, and there would be no bad effect. Canals and dams were dug to control seasonal flooding. Farmers grew vegetables in the rich soil of the drained land, Ranchers had their cattle graze on the dry land, and new railways lines were constructed to connect communities throughout south Florida; but the ecosystem of the Everglades was not suited for either farming or ranching. The natural cycle of dry and wet seasons brought a devastating series of droughts and floods. These had always been a p...
Over the past 100 years the Louisiana coastline has suffered greatly from biotic, abiotic, and anthropogenic factors. The abiotic factors include things such as hurricanes or overnutrition that influence the surrounding biota. The biotic factors that contribute to coastal erosion are things like the immigration invasive species and the emigration or extinction of local flora and fauna that help preserve the wetlands. Additionally, there are anthropogenic factors such as pollution that can have strong negative influences on the abiotic and biotic factors of the wetlands. Each one of these factors cause ecological disturbances to the wetlands at a frequency and intensity that is unmanageable for the local flora and fauna. There are currently certain measures that are being taken into consideration to slow or stop the erosion of the Louisiana coastline.
The location of a levee requires analysis of both existing conditions and future plans for an area.
Living in Bangladesh, we have seen quite disastrous mudslides from the past few years. Mudslide is also called a landslide or a land slip. It is a downward mass movement of earth or rock on unstable slopes, including many forms resulting from differences in rock structure, coherence of material involved, degree of slope, amount of included water, extent of natural or artificial undercutting at the base of the slope, relative rate of movement, and relative quantity of material involved. There are numerous facts that can cause a mudslide and there are also numerous effects that it can cause us.
...he government of Louisiana soon came up with new criteria on how future structure should be built to withstand more natural disasters like these. Not only knowing basic information, knowing how to prepare, and seeing how Hurricane Katrina was so destructive should help the forty five million citizens that live on hurricane prone coastlines prepare for anything like this in the future.