Dutch expert on New Orleans

When it comes to building storm barriers, dams, dikes, land reclamation and the like, there are probably three centers of expertise in the Netherlands: the Department of Public Works, the big dredging companies (which are disproportionally Dutch) and the Technological University of Delft.

Delft University sells it's expertise through a not-for-profit company called WL Delft Hydraulics. One of it's specialties is flood management. These are the wonky nerds who make plans that work:

Dear Andras, Laura,

Watching events unfold in the New Orleans area I had flashbacks of the 1995 river Rhine and Meuse floods in Holland. Then, in just under two days aurthorities staged a forced evacuation of almost half a million people (total Dutch pop. is 16 million) and 2 million heads of cattle, pigs etc. It was the most orderly mass-operation I have ever seen.

I live near Holland's main disaster hospital AMC, which can effectively triple its capacity from 1,200 to 4,000 patients in 3 hours by opening up its six-story undergound disaster unit, and witnessed how hundreds of ambulances, army trucks and dozens of medicopters (including German and Belgian air-borne operating theatres) brought in hospital patients, people from care homes and the disabled from the disaster areas. Roads were closed to all other traffic, in hospitals across the country an overwhelming - and fortunatly unnecessary - number of staff and volunteers were on stand-by.

The material damage was incredible, but there were no casualties, there were three meals every day for every temporarily displaced man, woman and child, all cows were fed and milked, there was no looting. National public TV within days set up a disaster charity show which raised over 60M guilders (EUR 30M) to pay for damages not covered by insurance.

What I'm seeing on TV now is a third-world country with a government unwilling or incompetent to fulfill its tasks. I feel very, very sorry for the residents of the area.

Frank

I'm a bit ashamed to say this, but I really don't recall much of that flood. No relatives or friends of mine live near the rivers, I know no one who was evacuated. But at the time of this flood I was going to med school. In the AMC hospital. Things must have gone really, really smooth. Or maybe I was on vacation. But I digress.

My point is that this expertise is for sale, and has been since 1927. Somehow, the Americans aren't buying. In yesterday's Trouw newspaper (Dutch only) there was an interview with Huib de Vriend, CEO of WL Delft Hydraulics, as well as Professor of River Engineering at Delft University. I'm just going to butcher loosely translate a few snippets:

The Research Institute in Delft, known for its applied scientific research, expects to play a role in advising the advisors. To work as a consultant directly is difficult if not impossible. "The American market is rather protectionist in these matters.", says De Vriend.

...

It's also difficult for Dutch dredging companies to enter the American market. An old American low prohibits foreign ships to carry cargo that is in the national interest. That includes dredging silt. Bush has announced his intention to loosen the restrictions: foreign shipping companies would be allowed to deliver oil, with the hope of averting an oil crisis. It seems it is too early for a similar decision for foreign dredgers.

...

The Department of Public Works has offered to send a team of experts to inspect the levees, a gesture that has been graciously accepted. But for the time being the Americans keep it under consideration.

This is so fucked up. Economic protectionism trumps actual protection.