Is there any part of Louisiana that doesn't flood?

[krw]

I'm heading up there next week. :-(

[krw]

Crap. I'm flying up Tuesday.

[micky]

I think one needs more details to know how significant this is. Baltimore Country, where I live, has had flooding too. 3 or 4 houses were washed away in Hurricane Agnes, I think it was, before my time, more than 3 years ago.

And in Baltimore City, like another county, Fallsway and the once-factory areas next to the Jones Falls flood at least once a year, but it's in a big (for around here) valley and anyone who understands rain should at least ask if it's going to flood. Everyone who's lived her 5 years or more knows about it. These days one could just google flooding Baltimore City and read about it, I think, though maybe that wouldn't work in rural La.

And I live right on a stream that will rise from 1 foot to 10 feet and come within an inch of my property line. But I'm no longer worried about flooding here because after 30 years it's never gone higher than that, and the watershed for my stream goes only 2 or 3 miles upstream. Also they said, and I keep forgetting to check, that the road on the other side of the stream and 100 feet of woods is lower than my house, and that the stream will widen and have to fill that road before it gets to my house. (And the land is 3 inches higher at my house than at the property line, only 20 feet away, and the basement window is 5" higher than that.)

BTW, 45 years ago when I drove around the area south of New Orleans, where the roads are paved with broken sea shells, maybe oysters or clams, 4 out of 5, maybe 9 out of 10, houses were built on stilts. What got me was the 5th house, that wasn't. They didn't look older than the others, they looked like they'd been built no more than 10 years earlier. What idiot would build his house right on the ground when everyone else was using stilts???

Anyhow, my point is, that it floods in one part of the county doesn't mean it floods everywhere. I think there are some counties where it floods everywhere in the county but I'll bet less than 20 in the country.

The county assessors office may have maps with elevation noted. Google Earth has elevation noted. And when you are actually at a location, you can generally tell if it's higher or lower than the surrounding area. We lived on flat land in Indiana, and the house 3 doors down had a big back yard that was soaking wet. The city map of INdianapolis and suburbs showed a stream right there, but I guess he bought his house after June when it never rains. I don't think there was even a culvert where the stream crossed under the main road we both lived on (Spring Mill Drive at what would be 71st St.) Try not to let that happen

[micky]

No more fantasies about you.