mohandasgandhi:

Nearly 70 percent of the roughly 30,000 miles of levees in the U.S. are not trusted by government flood officials to hold back floodwaters

At last count, there were roughly 30,000 miles of levees across the country. String them together and they would wrap around the world, and then some. Here’s another way to harness their ubiquity: For every McDonald’s restaurant in America, there are more than 2 miles of levees.

And most of them, almost 70 percent, are not trusted by government flood officials to do their job. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said in 2010 that 20,350 miles of levee walls are “not accredited” — meaning that those who live behind the barriers are assumed to be threatened by a “high risk” of flooding.

This is serious. With increasing ocean levels and harsher weather due to climate change, we’re more at risk than ever to suffer flooding.

Remember Hurricane Katrina? Nearly 2,000 people died. Those who are most at risk live in the poorer districts of this country. Contact your Representative and tell them you want more funding allocated toward levee reconstruction.

(via silas216)