U Got Screwed essays

U Got Screwed essays Kissimmee River System Past and Present Thirty years ago, the Army Corps of Engineers in partnership with the State of Florida began construction of a massive flood control project on the Kissimmee River in south central Florida. The flood control solution was the channelization of the river, converting its 103 plus miles of shallow, meandering river channel and floodplain to a geometric, essentially straight as an arrow. Historically, the Kissimmee River meandered approximately 103 miles within a one to two mile floodplain. The floodplain, approximately 56 miles long, sloped gradually to the south from an elevation of about 51 feet at lake Kissimmee to about 15 feet at lake Okeechobee; falling an average of about one third of a foot in elevation over each mile of the river. Under historic condition, river flows generally exceeded 250 cubic feet per second 95 percent of the time, while over bank flooding occurred when flows exceeded 1,400 cfs in the upper reaches to 2,000 cfs in the lower reaches. It is important to recognize at the outset that the 1961-71-flood control work on the Kissimmee River was a continuation of past federal concerns and the development of the river that began with the construction of federal law. George Orwell was not only a writer, but also an important political reformer. Orwell was born in India in 1903. He considered his family a "lower-middle class" family. He said this because his family was a part of the middle class, but had little money. His father worked for the British government and was able to be apart of the middle class without money. Orwell lived in Britain and went to boarding school there on scholarships. He was the poorest student among many wealthy children. Orwell felt like an outsider at the boarding schools he went to. The students were all kept in line by beatings. This was Orwell's first taste of dictatorship, being helpless under the rule of an ...