Should Flood Zones Have Mandatory Raised Highways In and Out?

If you've ever driven through Louisiana you will notice that they have raised highways, raised roads, and in many places raised bike lanes too. The railroad tracks are also raised. When you drive along the freeway you are constantly looking down. It's obvious why this is, it's because it is a perpetual flood zone. Indeed, almost all of Louisiana is. Therefore, when the water level rises and starts flooding, people have a way to get out, and go to higher ground, even if that higher ground is just a long thin strip. Okay so let's talk about the strategy for a moment shall we?

Lately, the global warming alarmists have been telling us that all the ice will melt in the North, and it will rise in the sea level. This means that just about anyone who lives at the beach and is below two or three meters in elevation could supposedly get flooded. Now then, I'm not a global alarmist, but if that really were the case and the government was really concerned, and if runaway climate change was really occurring, then it makes sense to prepare.

Therefore, should there be raised highways, and roads through those areas which are under two or three meters near the ocean? That would make sense right? I mean are already talking about moving infrastructure such as sewer treatment plants, power plants, and other important structures away from the ocean, inland. Not only would this help in case of ocean level rise, it can also help if there was a big Tsunami, or a breaking of one of the plates in the Indian Ocean causing such, or God forbid along the Pacific Ocean's Ring of fire. We all saw what happened in Japan after their huge earthquake nearby.

No, I don't mean to scare people to death, all I'm saying is it makes sense to have a little bit of disaster preparedness just in case. People don't have to die just because they lose their property to a flood. Thus, it makes sense that all major two-lane roads, bike paths and bike lanes are raised in those flood zone areas. Likewise the two-lane highways should have very large shoulders, and Center dividers. This would allow people to have a place to park once they got to safety, even if they could motivate themselves out of the area.

In many places where hurricanes occur along our coastline in the United States we have hurricane evacuation routes. These are the routes which are safe in the case of severe flooding with raised highways. That only makes sense. If we are truly worried about a Tsunami or rising ocean levels, then maybe we need to consider this also, and that would be all along the Pacific Coast as well. Please consider all this and think on it.