K. and J. both sent notes about the crazy flood protection drill that went on at the marina at BPC this past weekend – I sat on it all week hoping to hear more about the results and failed. However, I do know that this (trademarked) Tiger Dam system is a series of plastic tubes that get filled with water before the floods come. The idea is each tube replaces 500 sandbags — and when the floods are gone, you don’t have to dispose of the sand. I’m not sure if it’s ironic to be using millions of gallons of water to protect from flood damage, or fitting.

Brookfield purchased the system in response to Sandy, and also added watertight flash flood doors with seals to some of their towers, and extended the slurry walls. The photo above is from K. The ones below are from US Flood Control, the company that makes the dams. The dams can be stacked and lashed together to make a wall as high as 32 feet. That last pic is a town in British Columbia. And you thought we had troubles.