Water Resources: Hydraulics and Hydrology
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he called Ralph Blour, the man that headed the structural engineering that went over
to the World Bank. I mentioned hirn once before, and I couldn't think of his name.
He followed Hathaway over there.
So Wendell Johnson called Ralph Blour. This was on a Sunday, I think. They
called the World Bank and as far as they could find out, everyone was okay. I think
they got my wife calmed down. Then about that time, she got my telegram. But,
of course, what the paper didn't say was that there were three or four different
World Bank teams there. There was a bank team down in the area. They were
down there checking, working out a project to build better levee protection. In the
meantime, they had built some concrete structures. These people were in a boat, but
they had gotten to this concrete structure and they were all safe. But that really must
have been horrible. It was over 500,000 people drowned.
Q ..
They've had a couple more of those since then, haven't they? they've had a couple
more of those typhoons.
A ..
Yes, they have, but I don't think any of the recent ones have been near as bad as that
one. I don't know whether they've ever done much--there really is not too much
they can do about it. Apparently, it's not practical to build the levees high enough
to protect them. They have protection for smaller storms, but not for the larger
storms.
But while we were there in Dacca, the relief supplies started coming in. They were
piled all over the airport, but they just didn't have any organization or facilities to
get the stuff down to where the people needed it. It was just stacked up in the
airport. I guess, eventually, they did work something out.
The gentleman's name that was the head of ACE was Azeemuddin. He has died.
His son is now the head of the company. I still get seasons greeting cards from him.
They have offices in other countries where they do a lot of work other than just in
Pakistan. But Azeemuddin had a good sense of humor. He smoked. He'd buy a
package of some cheap, I guess they were cheap cigars. It wasn't because he
couldn't afford something better, but he would have these cigars, and I'd smoke
some with him and that always made him happy.
Bangladesh grows a lot of, it's a regular plant, but it could be made into a drug.
The natives chew the leaves--I don't know what they do to it to make a drug out of
it. But, well, they make hemp, too. I guess that's what they call it, hemp.
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