Land subsidence

Abstract

In November 1966, sixty percent of Venice, Italy, is inundated by a storm surge that causes waters in the Venetian lagoon to rise more than 6 feet. On December 28, 1971, a janitor at the Washington Elementary School in Johnston City, Illinois, discovers sever cracking of the school. In January 1972, the school is abandoned and subsequently razed. In the 1970's, five homes in New Orleans, Louisiana, are destroyed by gas explosins. In May 198, a 350 feet diameter sink-hole forms in a business area in Winter Park, Florida, and swallows a home and parts of several businesses. In August 1983, Hurricane Alicia slams into the texas Gulf Coast near Houston, Texas, and devastates the 500 home Brownwood subdivision on the north end of Galveston Bay. Homes are torn from their foundations and reduced to rubble.