Critters 'n Crap!

Port Townsend, today. So, when the floodways are opened, what happens to the indigenous critters? Where do they go?

This is the inventory of just the reptiles and amphibians living inside the floodway, as recorded by the US Army Corps of Engineers, when the Bonnet Carré Floodway was planned.

This list does not include spiders, fire ants, cockroaches, and four legged beasts like rats, mice, moles, voles, ad infinitum.

Where do they go when the needles are pulled and the floodway is filled with water?



I received a comment critical of my referring to news people who file their report, standing in floodwater, as "stupid."

Well, consider this partial list of garbage mixed into floodwater:

• The entire chemical stock found under thousands of kitchen and bathroom sinks.
• All the chemicals, from paint to transmission fluids, found in garages.
• Pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, battery fluids, and pool chemicals found in garages.
• Human and animal feces and urine and blood borne pathogens.
• Raw, unprocessed sewage from sewage treatment plants, septic tanks and drain fields.
• Animal carcasses and human bodies exhumed by currents.
  
• Infectious organisms, including intestinal bacteria such as E. coli, Salmonella, and Shigella; Hepatitis A Virus; and agents of typhoid, paratyphoid and tetanus.
• Contents of business, industrial and retail stores, including acids, bases, and controlled chemicals. Business and industrial waste.
• Et cetera

Flooded areas may also harbor electrical hazards connected with downed power lines.

So. For me to call a news person "stupid" for wandering around in floodwater seems kind.

What do you think?

See Also:
"Balance of Harms" The Blast at Bird's Point
Will the Mississippi River Change Course?
Tick. Tick. Tick.
"Balance of Harms" Morganza Opened