Lab #5

Flood of '94

     By the Ocomolgee River in Macon, Georgia, there is a man-made levee.  This seems to be a good thing, as it is a place people can walk on, and it provides a clear bank to the river.  Yet in 1994, this levee caused a great flood.  The flood was a result of the tropical storm Alberto.  Georgia received at least ten inches of rainfall, and this caused the Ocomolgee River to rise very high.  The water pressure was great, and the levee broke.  Water flooded past the levee and into the community.  The river rose so high that there was a great fear of the Otis Redding Bridge breaking.  The bridge survived, but Interstate 16 and Interstate 75 were blocked due to the flooding, and portions of them were completely underwater.  Governor Zell Miller declared Bibb County to be in a state of emergency, and millions of dollars in damage were done. 

Click on the link to see a video of the flood: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEOCfrOP5G4

This picture shows an overhead view of the flooding in Macon, GA. 

Lab #4

Up the Yangze

Up the Yangze is a movie about the hydroelectric dam built on the Yangze River in China.  The movie takes an interesting approach to the situation by following two teenagers who are affected by the building of the dam.  The two teenagers both take up jobs working on a cruise ship as a way to earn money during this time of change.  One of these teenagers is a girl named Yu Shui.  She is given the English name of Cindy by her employer, and she works as a dishwasher on the cruise ship.  Cindy is 16 years old and comes from a very poor family that lives in a small home on the edge of the Yangze River.  Although Cindy’s family is poor, they are able to have enough food to eat by farming off of the land they live on.  When the dam is built, Cindy’s family is forced to move to the city where they can no longer farm for their food.  The movie shows the water rising once the dam is built, and it eventually covers the lot where Cindy’s family once lived.  The other teenager is a boy named Chen Bo Yu.  He is named Jerry by the cruise line, and he works as a performance singer and carries passengers’ bags to make tips.  Jerry is 19 years old and comes from a better off family.  Jerry has a rather arrogant attitude, and believes he is better than Cindy.  This attitude results in Jerry getting fired from the cruise line.  Unlike Cindy, however, Jerry has other options in life.  His family can afford to send him to school if he does not work.  By following these two teenagers, the movie shows the different effects that the dam has on families.  Although Jerry has other option, Cindy needs to work to help her family survive in the city.  The building of the dam shows that China is changing.  The dam is progress for China, and it will help industrialize the country.  Yet this industrialization results in the rural areas, and the people that live there, being forced out.  Although the dam is good for the country, it is not necessarily good for all individual families.

 

    The movie cover shown above illistrates       The picture above shows the hydroelectric dam

    Cindy staring out over the Yangtze River          built in China that resulted in flooding that

  before the flooding resulted from the dam          displaced many families, including Cindy's