| “Hit the Ground Running” Suggested Solutions for the Democratic Platform SAMPLE WORK SHEET TO FUEL YOUR THINKING by BARBARA MITCHELL JULY 14, 2009 FOR: A Work-force Design/Plan” to Repair, Rebuild, Build the U.S. Infrastructure….. Where should the work begin? (The attached articles might help to formulate your answers) 146 U.S. levees may fail in flood By Peter Eisler, USA TODAY May 1/29/2007 WASHINGTON — The Army Corps of Engineers has identified 146 levees nationwide that it says pose an unacceptable risk of failing in a major flood. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-01-28-levees_x.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Army Corps says Condition of many levees a mystery May 12 05:05 AM US/Eastern (2008) By JIM SALTER Associated Press Writer ST. LOUIS (AP) - Across America, earthen flood levees protect big cities and small towns, wealthy suburbs and rich farmland. But the Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency that oversees levees, lacks an inventory of thousands of them and has no idea of their condition, the corps' chief levee expert told The Associated Press. http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D90K0I4G0&show_article=1 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHO WILL BE EMPLOYED? ● Veteran returning from the war. ● Green -Jobs etc. Re-training of unemployed from various industries: (States with the highest unemployment of displaced workers Ohio, Michigan other states etc.) Getting the appropriate Trade Unions informed as to what is expected of them. What Institutions are currently offering training for infrastructure jobs…? How do we get the training on the fast track etc. We can assume all the levees need repairing, approx. how many employees will be needed. How many man-women hours estimated to repair each levee (very ruff estimate) anybody knows? About how many employees are we talking per year? (I know we have to find the levees first to determine the amount of damage) Does the government have any idea how many levees there are in the U.S., even if they don’t know where they are. If we knew how many, we could do a ruff estimate of jobs that will be needed; once you know how many you can probably do an estimate based on how long it would take to build a new levee, using that amount of time, less 25 percent. That could, probably, also help to determine a ruff estimate of material cost for the repairs. Are the materials readily available to make the needed repairs? Is that something that the government can assign someone to begin locating and stockpiling now? How many acres can a surveyors survey per 8 hour day? How many employable surveyors are there in the U.S.? Can they be contacted easily by a government representative? How many infrastructure trained employable people are currently in the U.S.? Does the union keep track of them? Based upon the above information, “Army Corps says Condition of many levees a mystery” since the Army Core of Engineers do not know where all of the levees are, should each City municipality become the place to begin the search for levees, since this is an extremely urgent matter, and a very time consuming job. Re- surveying the lay-out of the land in each U.S. town to find all the levees is a big job…. However, it is not an option to just locate the levees as they break as it seem to have been the case with the recent ms & Iowa floods. Additionally there needs to be immediate training put in place for land surveyors; is someone in the government working on getting that done? From each City Municipality to each State, and from there, an immediate plan needs to be put into place within 30 days of Obama as president. This process needs to get started immediately as to eliminate more damage from breaking levees. “Hurricane Season Getting Longer” By Andrea Thompson, Senior Writer posted: 14 July 2008 12:15 am ET “Hurricane seasons have been getting longer over the past century and the big storms are coming earlier, Live Science has learned. The trend has been particularly noticeable since 1995, some climate scientists say”. http://www.livescience. com/environment/080714-gw-hurr-season.html This linked article, also, confirms the need for Senator Obama to Develop Results-Oriented Plans of Action to address U.S. Challenges to “Hit the Ground Running” as U.S. President in January 2009: We need to know what is being done now, so we know what to do immediately to eliminate as many disasters as possible, without getting caught up in a Katrina circle where very little gets done. Disasters are huge distraction. With so much needing to be done, it’s like the U.S. is riding on a runaway train with bad brakes waiting for repair in 2009; that is why the levee repair is first on this list….. WHEN: AS SOON AS POSSIBLE OF COURSE… WHAT CAN BE DONE DURING THE FIRST 30 DAYS TO MAKE THIS “ASAP” BEGIN WITHIN 60 DAYS eliminating bureaucracy? |
| INFRASTRUCTURE/LEVEES |