Credi-Bull - a story that might be fact, and might be fiction. When playing, please avoid definitive answers like "I know this is true, I saw it on the news last night."..Instead, couch your vote as a "guess" - this will help ensure that everyone gets an unbiased chance to play!
The American Great Plains is a vast expanse of open terrain of half a million square miles - perfect land for farming and a prime location for tornadoes.
One thousand tornados hit the US every year. The Tri-State Tornado of 1925 was one of the deadliest tornadoes ever, killing almost 700 people.
In early 1926, President Calvin Coolidge directed the Army Corps of Engineers to solve the tornado problem.
Head Engineer General James Harbor attacked with an innovative weapon - trash. Several U.S. cities had just completed extensive landfills stable enough to build housing developments on top of. General Harbor's plan would ship trash from all over the US to the great plains states for fifteen to twenty years, drastically modifying the topography.
Extensive wind tunnel experiments would allow the engineers to strategically place a series of rolling hills up to 100 feet tall across the great plains, creating windbreaks sufficient to dissipate a storm before it could ever become a deadly tornado. Budget cuts meant General Harbor's plan died on the drawing board, but modern computer models tell us the idea has promise.
So - Did the U.S. consider landfills to solve the tornado problem once and for all? Credible, or just bull?
Real or Fake? Vote in the 'comments' section.
The American Great Plains is a vast expanse of open terrain of half a million square miles - perfect land for farming and a prime location for tornadoes.
One thousand tornados hit the US every year. The Tri-State Tornado of 1925 was one of the deadliest tornadoes ever, killing almost 700 people.
In early 1926, President Calvin Coolidge directed the Army Corps of Engineers to solve the tornado problem.
Head Engineer General James Harbor attacked with an innovative weapon - trash. Several U.S. cities had just completed extensive landfills stable enough to build housing developments on top of. General Harbor's plan would ship trash from all over the US to the great plains states for fifteen to twenty years, drastically modifying the topography.
Extensive wind tunnel experiments would allow the engineers to strategically place a series of rolling hills up to 100 feet tall across the great plains, creating windbreaks sufficient to dissipate a storm before it could ever become a deadly tornado. Budget cuts meant General Harbor's plan died on the drawing board, but modern computer models tell us the idea has promise.
So - Did the U.S. consider landfills to solve the tornado problem once and for all? Credible, or just bull?
Real or Fake? Vote in the 'comments' section.
that is so stupid that is has to be true
ReplyDeleteI'm going to go with Real.
ReplyDeleteAnd once I hit "post" I'm going to do a little research...
When did landfills become a thing? I'm guessing thousands of years ago, and yet it seems so American to try to bury the problem.
This one is fake!
ReplyDelete