The article I chose is from CNN and written by the highly respected Chris Isidore. The Category 4 hurricane, Ida, swept through the city of New Orleans taking out power for nearly a million people. The city is hoping to have most of the power back on by Wednesday, but the possibility of thousands of people being without power for weeks if not months is very high. St. Charles Parish, a town west of New Orleans and home to more than 50,000 residents are expected to be without power for at least a month. The possibility of creating an electrical grid that will stand through Mother Nature\u2019s wrath is nearly impossible. Quickly restoring power is crucial, according to both experts and public officials in Louisiana, writes Isidore. The financial losses due to the hurricane creates larger problems both right after the storm and during the clean-up. Fixing power grids will take time, but the longer the residents must wait the more losses and costs they will experience as well. Huge power lines were sentenced to the ground during the storm and will take months to fix. Sending the power lines underground is a common practice in Europe, but it is extremely expensive. While the state decides, solar panels and batteries are being offered to the residents to get power back up. The costs of making a change to the power and the costs of doing nothing are both greatly impactful to the residence of New Orleans and the surrounding area. \u201cBut it will take both time and massive amounts of money to fix the system. Cohan said to do the minimum to make the US electrical grid as resilient as it needs to be would cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Webber said it would cost trillions of dollars spread over decades to do the complete upgrade. The current massive infrastructure bill sets aside less than $100 billion for electrical grid improvements, though.\u201d said Isidore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The storm that took place in southern Louisiana is tragic, but I believe that the officials and the Louisiana government should adopt the method of putting their power lines underground. Doing so will decrease the costs of clean-up, prevent most residence from long-term power loss, and overall be more beneficial in the long run. <\/p>\n\n\n\n