ninme

Seattle, peculiarly, isn’t mentioned.

The Times - After New Orleans - would you move here?
Whether by earthquake, flood, drought or volcanic eruption, some of the world’s cities are in serious danger of disaster, by Paul Simons

It was a close shave, but New Orleans just managed to escape Hurricane Gustav’s onslaught on Monday. But the stark truth is that the city’s days are numbered. Its fate was sealed in 1717, when French explorer Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville chose a sharp bend in the Mississippi River to found “Nouvelle-Orleans”, in the teeth of opposition from his chief engineer, who warned him of flooding ahead.

And it didn’t take long before the first flood struck. Today New Orleans is a hopeless case. It can play around with levees, floodgates and sluices, but the seas are rising higher and the natural flood defences of surrounding marshlands are disappearing,

I’m all about restoring wetlands. I’m also all about people not moving to New Orleans. A quaint, tightly-packed, high-density population of essentials is great. Surrounded by lots of nature and wetlands is better.

Istanbul:

In fact, Istanbul is so dangerous that some earthquake experts of my acquaintance refused to go to a conference there several years ago.

Huh.

Phoenix:

The Arizona city could become the first in the United States to run out of water. It is built in a desert, with a yearly rainfall of only around 20cm (8in), and much of its water supply is taken from the Colorado River, which is running out of water as seven states also tap its water.

I’m also not a fan of people moving to Arizona. I don’t mind a couple golf courses that people can fly into (as in Hawaii), and then fly out of. Make like the desert is the ocean, and don’t build on it.

Bombay:

Rain is killing India’s most populous city. On July 26, 2005, record-breaking monsoon rains devastated Bombay and killed more than 400 people. The city’s decrepit drainage system, built in the 19th century, could not cope with the deluge, and Bombay has little open space to soak up heavy rains.

As the surrounding mangroves have been stripped away to reclaim more land, the city also faces floods and cyclone surges from the sea, which is rising higher. Eventually, Bombay could disappear under the waves.

Well, not much to tell them to do there. Build better infrastructure? Duh?

Shanghai:

The first major world city to sink under its own weight could be Shanghai. Each year it sinks around 1 centimetre (half an inch) from subsidence after too much water extraction from the ground, and from the sheer weight of skycrapers on the soft ground it is built on.

Well that’s stupid. They don’t build on bedrock?

Naples, ah, Naples:

Vesuvius also sets off earthquakes, and in 1456 a quake killed 35,000 people and left Naples in ruins. The city’s buildings are largely poorly built, and a big earthquake or eruption coud leave it in ruins.

Oh well. The food’s good. Maybe the impending doom will keep property prices low for me!