The Cold Hard Facts
A must-read from Tweeter Tuber fofalex: About the Mississippi Flood of 2011.
Since surviving Hurricane Katrina, and not even flooding (much) during the string of ACOE levee failures (at below design strength, I shall add), I got a bad case of survivors guilt, which is plaguing me again. But why should I be the one feeling guilty? It’s not like the rest of America doesn’t have a stake in this whole flooding of south central Louisiana also. Isn’t this the drainage of 31 states? All of the showers, toilets, farmland, etc., of a huge chunk of the country passes by us on a daily basis and we’re the ones that have to deal with it. The implication is that we take on that responsibility by choosing to live where we do. A popular theme around here is that it’s the cost of living in paradise. Rich, fertile soils, to answer the IMHO stupid question of why would you farm near the river. Plentiful water, sometimes too plentiful, and in some respects not really water anymore, thanks to industrial runoff. Plentiful industry, thanks to easy access to the Gulf and all of its petroleum that everyone likes to have.
Let’s talk about industry, since the MSM only hints at it. Here is a list of refineries on the river below Morganza, with their US Rank and bbl/day production included.
2 EXXON MOBIL CORP EXXONMOBIL REFINING & SUPPLY CO Louisiana BATON ROUGE 504500 4 MARATHON OIL CORP MARATHON PETROLEUM CO LLC Louisiana GARYVILLE 436000 19 CONOCOPHILLIPS CONOCOPHILLIPS COMPANY Louisiana BELLE CHASSE 247000 25 MOTIVA ENTERPRISES LLC Motiva Enterprises LLC Louisiana CONVENT 235000 26 MOTIVA ENTERPRISES LLC Motiva Enterprises LLC Louisiana NORCO 234700 34 CHALMETTE REFINING LLC Chalmette Refining LLC Louisiana CHALMETTE 192500 35 VALERO ENERGY CORP VALERO REFINING NEW ORLEANS LLC Louisiana NORCO 185003 57 MURPHY OIL CORP MURPHY OIL USA INC Louisiana MERAUX 120000 96 PLACID OIL CO PLACID REFINING CO Louisiana PORT ALLEN 57000 98 ROYAL DUTCH/SHELL GROUP SHELL CHEMICAL LP Louisiana SAINT ROSE 55000
That’s 2.2 Million barrels of oil getting refined, every day, down here. Do you use gasoline? Then you have a stake in this. Remember how the price of gas shot up after Katrina? That price shock would be mild in comparison to what it would be if the river flooded out a few of the refineries on this list. Do you use cleaning products, shampoo, bleach, bug spray? All of that gets manufactured down here. Why? Industry likes to be near a navigable river. It’s the best way to make and transport these things, especially on the scale that modern America demands.We have ports too. The Port of South Louisiana is the busiest port in the country, in tonnage. Add Port of New Orleans (6th), Baton Rouge (13), and Plaquemines (14) and you’ve got as much cargo as the entire west coast of this country. Grain from the Midwest, oil from the Gulf, rubber and coffee from Central and South America. We move it.
South Louisiana hits above the belt in terms of Gross Domestic Production. If you add Baton Rouge and New Orleans and everything in between, we would be the 26th metro area in terms of GDP, producing $110 billion every year, in an area with 2 million people. The news media’s portrayal of us as a bunch of slackers is frankly flat wrong. But it suits them better than having a frank discussion about what their advertisers need.
More can be found here.
What was the level of the river by the steamer Natchez pier in the Quarter this week? Still 15 1/2 feet, and the crest won’t reach us ’til next week. I don’t even want to think about the advent of hurricane season at the end of the month.
In the meantime, we need to give those affected by Morganza’s opening a bit more than this:
24-hr crisis hotline avail. for FREE Counseling Flood-Related Stress: 866-310-7977 for info on local services & help for emotional distress
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