Monday, October 04, 2004

Flood Follow-up

The P-G has run a couple of particularly good flood follow-ups. One is this opinion piece that reminds us that natural floodplains are parts of urban ecosystems, and that political pressures to eliminate them and create artifical channels for rivers and streams may end up doing more harm than good. This lesson gets taught in almost every major urban flood (and in many rural floods), but it is rarely learned. (The authors of the P-G piece open by citing Jared Orsi's recent book on the control of flooding in Los Angeles. John McPhee's The Control of Nature is a fabulous journalistic account of similar human/nature battles around the world.)

The second is this account of the efforts to save and now restore the Chatellier bakery in Millvale. Thanks to Jim DeAngelis for the pointer; this piece ran in the Food section, and many of us likely missed it.

No comments: