Due to the rising Mississippi River Blue Book attendees have asked questions regarding any implications this may have during our time in New Orleans. We have stayed on top of the situation and were provided the following statement that assures us there will be no impact on the Truck Blue Book Conference.
New Orleans is not subject to the type of river and tributary flooding seen along other parts of the Mississippi River due to the extensive water diversion systems that guide high river waters away from New Orleans and lower Mississippi River Valley communities.
Located in St. Charles Parish, 28 miles from New Orleans, the Bonnet Carre Spillway is a structure that diverts water from the Mississippi River into Lake Pontchartrain then to the Gulf of Mexico, thus allowing high waters to bypass New Orleans. The structure has a design capacity of 250,000 cubic feet per second, the equivalent of roughly 1,870,000 gallons of water per second. This strategy was last implemented in 2008 and the Army Corps tested the system April 5, 2011.
Monday, May 9 the Army Corps of Engineers opened 28 of the 350 Bonnet Carre Spillway bays. Bays are individual sections of the structure that allow for water to flow from the river into Lake Pontchartrain. Tuesday, May 10 the Army Corps opened 44 more bays. 72 of the 350 bays are now open and diverting water from the Mississippi River.
Supplemental tactics such as activating the Morganza Floodway, another diversion structure located 35 miles northwest of Baton Rouge, can provide additional layers of protection if needed.
Activation of the spillway is unnoticeable to visitors in New Orleans, and creates no disruption to daily life of residents, businesses or tourism.
We look forward to seeing you next week, please travel safe.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
A Metric from 2008 worth Paying Attention To
By Guest Columnist Armada Executive Intelligence
Remember 2008 when oil prices hit a recorded high of $147 a barrel? There was a metric that was circulated then that has resurfaced, and we think it is important to keep in the back of your mind. The most conservative view of gasoline prices suggests that a penny increase in the price of gasoline at the pump costs US consumers and businesses $4 million a day (per penny). We did the math, and the current situation would look like this for the last three months alone: starting with a regular price per gallon of $2.72 on Gasbuddy.com on September 22nd and working through to roughly $3.00 a gallon on December 22nd, business and consumer would have diverted $7.968 billion in spending from other types of purchases to fuel cost-related expenditures. Of course, there are some skeptics that don’t believe this math works in a real sense – and there are just as many that will tell us that the impact is much worse than this (because of the impact of consumer psychology on spending practices). We believe the impact to be somewhere in between on a street level basis. As we think back to 2008 and the relative impacts across the board, it did have a material effect on consumer spending. The situation is starting to capture more international headlines – and is something to factor into risk analyses for January. The Truck Blue Book® is working to bring subscribers a full daily economic update, from our partners at Armada Corporate Intelligence.
*Armada Executive Intelligence Brief is an online information service, published electronically by Armada Corporate Intelligence. It is prepared by Armada CI. The publisher has taken all reasonable steps to verify the accuracy of the content of this information. Armada Corporate Intelligence shall not be responsible for any errors or omissions.
By Guest Columnist Armada Executive Intelligence
Remember 2008 when oil prices hit a recorded high of $147 a barrel? There was a metric that was circulated then that has resurfaced, and we think it is important to keep in the back of your mind. The most conservative view of gasoline prices suggests that a penny increase in the price of gasoline at the pump costs US consumers and businesses $4 million a day (per penny). We did the math, and the current situation would look like this for the last three months alone: starting with a regular price per gallon of $2.72 on Gasbuddy.com on September 22nd and working through to roughly $3.00 a gallon on December 22nd, business and consumer would have diverted $7.968 billion in spending from other types of purchases to fuel cost-related expenditures. Of course, there are some skeptics that don’t believe this math works in a real sense – and there are just as many that will tell us that the impact is much worse than this (because of the impact of consumer psychology on spending practices). We believe the impact to be somewhere in between on a street level basis. As we think back to 2008 and the relative impacts across the board, it did have a material effect on consumer spending. The situation is starting to capture more international headlines – and is something to factor into risk analyses for January. The Truck Blue Book® is working to bring subscribers a full daily economic update, from our partners at Armada Corporate Intelligence.
*Armada Executive Intelligence Brief is an online information service, published electronically by Armada Corporate Intelligence. It is prepared by Armada CI. The publisher has taken all reasonable steps to verify the accuracy of the content of this information. Armada Corporate Intelligence shall not be responsible for any errors or omissions.
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