Collaborative World Building: US after a global flood!

[geK0]

*note that the setting is a few decades after flooding so people have settled down and formed new cities.
*The thread is all over the place because I'm writing it the same way I write notes.
*The map I have is a quick recolor of Gimp and the flooding is more extreme than I intend to have; the flooding will be less than 100m.
*I have a lot of ideas fleshed out, but no spoilers : P

I have been looking at a bunch of height maps, and I noticed that the us and Canada has some pretty interesting geography after being flooded. I've been trying to figure out a way to make a more detailed map using google earth, but in the meantime I can use this random google image.

I encourage everyone who's willing to help to share some maps with various degrees of flooding. (I actually definitely want it less flooded because there are some areas I already wrote which are flooded in this map haha)

I edited it using Gimp to show what it would look like with some severe flooding

I'd like to have a more detailed map, so if anyone is savy with google earth plug ins, I'd love to be able to zoom in on this map and see cities and roads.

Here's another map. I think maybe I'll reduce the flooding to under 200 meters just to keep some of the areas that I'd like to keep. I'd still love to have a tool which I could use to test different levels of flooding on Google Earth

It looks like the bay reaches all the way up to Illinois.
Almost all of the southern states are flooded.
The east coast has reached far in land and the west coast has flooded a bit.
Texas is cut in half.
The Mississipi has become more of a long lake than a river.
I imagine the st. Lawrence in Canada has become much wider and the great lakes might even be connected.
The I95 is under water (good riddance)
Check out that chain of islands between Louisiana and Alabama, and that one tiny island in florida.

And Then There's Canada

-Hudson bay has become much more massive.
-Major cities have been swallowed by the great lakes
-The maritime provinces have been almost entirely lost to the ocean
-The st lawrence and great lakes have merged into a long bay
-The central provinces are completely unaffected

Any other interesting observations? You probably wonder why I'm even doing this (it's a secret ). Discuss anything you notice and discuss how you think the country would work with these massive changes.

Can some people who are more familiar than I am with the states tell me which states and major cities are near the new coast?

Just imagine the naval battles that might take place in that big bay (Confederate bay?)

I tried using this map as an overlay in google earth but it didn't work

Spoiler: it's shaped wrong

any graphics savy people able to correct this?

Good ideas:
-The bay is called "Bay of Orleans" (Gulf of Orleans?)
-Nebraska is now a major coastal area and would likely be held by the same faction as Texas.
-Desert states become more fertile because of increased percipitation
-People live on boats a la "Gargantia" (look it up)
-Major military powerhouse faction based near Vegas.
-Opposing faction based near Reno
-Major engineering projects in some regions to prevent flooding wherever possible
(Saint Lawrence river)
(Mississipi river)

Thank you everyone for the input! I'll consider all these things when creating the final version.

 

[Albino Boo]

Most major cites are gone. The islands that now make up the east coast is basically the Appalachian mountains.

 

[geK0]

Most major cites are gone. The islands that now make up the east coast is basically the Appalachian mountains.

Alright thanks for that note, Ill see which cities are around that land mass. I think maybe I'll use a slightly less flooded version? I'm not quite sure yet. I just looked up a basic elevation map and flooded all the low areas, I couldn't find a more detailed elevation map to know the actual elevations so I just made everything that was red blue.

I really am quite curious if there are any surviving cities on those islands or if there are any places where dams and dikes might have saved chunks of land.

 

[Areloch]

Can some people who are more familiar than I am with the states tell me which states and major cities are near the new coast?

Seems like Nebraska makes it out of there in half-decent shape, so yay not drowning for me.

Just imagine the naval battles that might take place in that big bay (Confederate bay?)

I like the name Sea of Orleans or The Orleans Sea better, m'self.

Also, I guess California doesn't need to worry about droughts now! *rimshot*

 

[geK0]

Can some people who are more familiar than I am with the states tell me which states and major cities are near the new coast?

Seems like Nebraska makes it out of there in half-decent shape, so yay not drowning for me.

Just imagine the naval battles that might take place in that big bay (Confederate bay?)

I like the name Sea of Orleans or The Orleans Sea better, m'self.

Also, I guess California doesn't need to worry about droughts now! *rimshot*

Orleans sea is fantastic! thanks!

I haven't decided what to do with each individual state yet but Nebraska and Texas I figure will have formed a small country I think. Nebraska is mostly farm land isn't it?

 

[Areloch]

Nebraska's a bit of an oddity, but yeah, a good bit of it is farmland to the east.

It also has Offut Airforce base which houses SAC, Strategic Air Command. So that could act as a foundation for a paramilitary government if it turned into it's own country.

As you go further west, it becomes flat grasslands and eventually deserty/rocky plateaus. Pretty variable landscape.

 

[EternallyBored]

I know in this scenario, most of the mountain states make it through just fine, So Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Boise, and all that are high and dry, although likely getting much more rain as the coastlines being near the mountains will negate a lot of the rain shielding effects they currently have, Not exactly prime farmland, but the Western Nevada and Arizona deserts would likely end up looking a lot greener. Pretty much everything between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevadas should be well protected from the initial effects of that scale of flooding.

Oregon and Washington would lose all their coastal cities but the more inland ones closer to Idaho should be fine. Same with California, the foothills leading to the Sierras look like they would be good too, I can't tell exactly from this map, but it looks like at least San Diego survives, but California loses the vast majority of its farmlands in that map.

Tech wise, The U.S. has some of its largest reserves of tanks and armor stored in Nevada/Arizona/West Texas, as well as a large number of military aircraft. Without L.A., Hoover dam can export a lot of electricity elsewhere to surviving cities, and Northern Nevada/ Southern Idaho are both rich in Natural gas and the entire mountain time zone is fairly rich in precious metals.

Don't know what exactly you are looking for here information wise, I know a bit about the mountain state areas, i.e. what kind of facilities and resources would survive this type of scenario. Probably not exactly what you want since you seem to be focusing on sea battles in the sunken zones, and the new islands formed here, suffice to say, there is a lot of high altitude flat land between the Rockies and the Sierras, so in a catastrophic flood scenario, you would be getting a lot of people relocating to what is essentially a high altitude desert.

 

[FPLOON]

Also, I guess California doesn't need to worry about droughts now! *rimshot*

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view4/2154688/rolling-on-the-floor-laughing-o.gif

OT: I can just imagine the property rates of homes next to the flooded areas will go up after some of those people "evacuate" to more of the central parts of the country...

Other than that, more boat homes in the east coast! Wee!

 

[geK0]

I know in this scenario, most of the mountain states make it through just fine, So Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Boise, and all that are high and dry, although likely getting much more rain as the coastlines being near the mountains will negate a lot of the rain shielding effects they currently have, Not exactly prime farmland, but the Western Nevada and Arizona deserts would likely end up looking a lot greener. Pretty much everything between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevadas should be well protected from the initial effects of that scale of flooding.

I was thinking of actually making some of the mojave desert turn into somewhat of a rain forest but I'm not sure that's feasible. Maybe with some hyper active genetically modified fauna? I imagine there would be some parts which would become very humid.

Oregon and Washington would lose all their coastal cities but the more inland ones closer to Idaho should be fine. Same with California, the foothills leading to the Sierras look like they would be good too, I can't tell exactly from this map, but it looks like at least San Diego survives, but California loses the vast majority of its farmlands in that map.

Means I get to make up more cities, neat! yea I figure California would be pretty devastated.

Tech wise, The U.S. has some of its largest reserves of tanks and armor stored in Nevada/Arizona/West Texas, as well as a large number of military aircraft. Without L.A., Hoover dam can export a lot of electricity elsewhere to surviving cities, and Northern Nevada/ Southern Idaho are both rich in Natural gas and the entire mountain time zone is fairly rich in precious metals.

Ohhhh, I might have a major powerhouse faction based in Vegas/Paradise in that case; I figure one of the casino companies might be able to use their influence to gain control over that artillery

Don't know what exactly you are looking for here information wise, I know a bit about the mountain state areas, i.e. what kind of facilities and resources would survive this type of scenario. Probably not exactly what you want since you seem to be focusing on sea battles in the sunken zones, and the new islands formed here, suffice to say, there is a lot of high altitude flat land between the Rockies and the Sierras, so in a catastrophic flood scenario, you would be getting a lot of people relocating to what is essentially a high altitude desert.

Everything you said was pretty valuable, I'm going to experiment with different levels of flooding, this one was just a recolour of a vague elevation map. The whole point is pretty much to see the perspective of people who actually live in the states.

Also, I guess California doesn't need to worry about droughts now! *rimshot*

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view4/2154688/rolling-on-the-floor-laughing-o.gif

OT: I can just imagine the property rates of homes next to the flooded areas will go up after some of those people "evacuate" to more of the central parts of the country...

Other than that, more boat homes in the east coast! Wee!

I actually thought about having some floating cities around Florida and Georgia.

 

[Xeros]

All I know based on this map is -

I, and everyone I know are either dead, or live in Pittsburgh.
Virginia/Northern North Carolina have themselves a sweet, little island there.
Sailing/diving through the ruins is gonna be a blast.

The I95 is under water (good riddance)

All of this construction; wasted.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Looks like my hometown isn't going to be effected directly but I would imagine some migration issues plaguing Saskatchewan with the displacement of people...

 

[geK0]

Looks like my hometown isn't going to be effected directly but I would imagine some migration issues plaguing Saskatchewan with the displacement of people...

I'll have to write a meteor in to decimate your home town. Where exactly do you live?

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Looks like my hometown isn't going to be effected directly but I would imagine some migration issues plaguing Saskatchewan with the displacement of people...

I'll have to write a meteor in to decimate your home town. Where exactly do you live?

I live in Calgary. For honest and true.

 

[geK0]

Looks like my hometown isn't going to be effected directly but I would imagine some migration issues plaguing Saskatchewan with the displacement of people...

I'll have to write a meteor in to decimate your home town. Where exactly do you live?

I live in Calgary. For honest and true.

That's in Alberta though.....whatever I'll just decimate the entire prairies! MUAHAHAHA!

 

[EternallyBored]

I was thinking of actually making some of the mojave desert turn into somewhat of a rain forest but I'm not sure that's feasible. Maybe with some hyper active genetically modified fauna? I imagine there would be some parts which would become very humid.

Depends what you mean by rainforest, I doubt the high altitude area would get very humid as the Sierras would block most of the moisture from getting too far past the mountains, the western portions remaining of California and the foothills of the Sierras would get very humid though. The closer coast would likely get you more clouds though, and high altitude clouds capable of clearing the mountains and dumping rain on those areas.

Arizona actually has a monsoon season where it is hit for a brief time with strong storms, with a closer coastline that could make those storms either better or worse. That effect also tends to promote large thunderstorms, whenever we get an el nino we end up with good amounts of rain and lightning coming through the area.

Vegetation wise, trees take a long time to grow, so unless you use a technological or magical component, it would take centuries for large forests to spring up in a desert. The most likely natural scenario would be evergreens from the Sierras growing down into the desert valleys. Look up pictures of lake Tahoe or Yosemite National park and that's probably what the Mojave would look like after a couple hundred years of rain and storms.

Means I get to make up more cities, neat! yea I figure California would be pretty devastated.

New cities do give you some flexibility for inserting interesting scenarios or locations, especially with so many people without homes, it gives you an excuse to just plop new cities down in convenient places using the excuse that they are refugees from the sunken city of L.A. or Seattle, it also gives you a chance to grow older cities and change them, Places like Vegas and Phoenix would see a massive influx of people from L.A., While cities like San Diego and Reno would likely see a lot of people escaping from Northern California and San Francisco, With Idaho and Montana likely getting a lot of refugees from Oregon and Washington, depending on how far you want to flood things. Same with the east end, a lot of people from the Great Plains zones likely escaping into Colorado and Nebraska.

Ohhhh, I might have a major powerhouse faction based in Vegas/Paradise in that case; I figure one of the casino companies might be able to use their influence to gain control over that artillery

The armor depot in Nevada is in the north, right on the border of Nevada and California, not Vegas, Vegas main thing is the Hoover dam which gives them an easily exportable source of electricity, probably why Fallout: New Vegas featured it so heavily, right now they sell electricity to Arizona and California, without California, the dam would have nearly half of its power generation capability freed up.

Vegas also has Nellis Air Force base (where the Boomers come from in New Vegas) which is a large Air Force base that houses a large number of fighter jet squadrons and military aircraft. The testing ranges are used to train pilots as well.

Still, many of the Casinos in both the north and South half of the state share owners and investors so you could feasibly come up with scenarios where corporate powers attempt to wrest control of the state in an apocalyptic scenario, the North Eastern portion of the state is also home to massive natural gas reserves, making the state a currently popular spot for energy development projects, and large deposits of both gold and silver (some of the largest currently being mined by Canadian companies).

Everything you said was pretty valuable, I'm going to experiment with different levels of flooding, this one was just a recolour of a vague elevation map. The whole point is pretty much to see the perspective of people who actually live in the states.

My knowledge of the East coast doesn't amount to much, but if you want to know anything about the Pacific/Mountain time zone I'm at least somewhat well-travelled, Hawaii too, but they are pretty much sunk in this scenario.

 

[geK0]

-snip-

All very useful info, thank you very much. I figure the setting will be a few decades after the flooding so there has been time for people to settle down and there would be time for the arid states to develop a new eco system.

Is the army base very far from vegas? I figure a strong faction might be able to have a large enough sphere of influence to take both the base and the dam.

 

[EternallyBored]

-snip-

All very useful info, thank you very much. I figure the setting will be a few decades after the flooding so there has been time for people to settle down and there would be time for the arid states to develop a new eco system.

Is the army base very far from vegas? I figure a strong faction might be able to have a large enough sphere of influence to take both the base and the dam.

The base is an hour or two outside of Reno which is an 8 hour drive north from Vegas, not exactly close, but Nellis is right outside of Vegas so any entity in control of Nellis and Vegas would have control of an airforce training range, and several hundred fighter jets and bombers, and be a half days drive with only the city of Reno standing between them and one of the largest single concentrations of American tanks, Humvees, and APCs on the continent, almost assuredly the largest with so many underwater in your scenario.

 

[geK0]

-snip-

All very useful info, thank you very much. I figure the setting will be a few decades after the flooding so there has been time for people to settle down and there would be time for the arid states to develop a new eco system.

Is the army base very far from vegas? I figure a strong faction might be able to have a large enough sphere of influence to take both the base and the dam.

The base is an hour or two outside of Reno which is an 8 hour drive north from Vegas, not exactly close, but Nellis is right outside of Vegas so any entity in control of Nellis and Vegas would have control of an airforce training range, and several hundred fighter jets and bombers, and be a half days drive with only the city of Reno standing between them and one of the largest single concentrations of American tanks, Humvees, and APCs on the continent, almost assuredly the largest with so many underwater in your scenario.

Okay so maybe another opposing faction will own that base. What industries are big in Reno?

edit:
casinos apparently

 

[EternallyBored]

-snip-

All very useful info, thank you very much. I figure the setting will be a few decades after the flooding so there has been time for people to settle down and there would be time for the arid states to develop a new eco system.

Is the army base very far from vegas? I figure a strong faction might be able to have a large enough sphere of influence to take both the base and the dam.

The base is an hour or two outside of Reno which is an 8 hour drive north from Vegas, not exactly close, but Nellis is right outside of Vegas so any entity in control of Nellis and Vegas would have control of an airforce training range, and several hundred fighter jets and bombers, and be a half days drive with only the city of Reno standing between them and one of the largest single concentrations of American tanks, Humvees, and APCs on the continent, almost assuredly the largest with so many underwater in your scenario.

Okay so maybe another opposing faction will own that base. What industries are big in Reno?

edit:
casinos apparently

Casinos, as you said, many owned by the same companies that own the Vegas casinos, Reno is mostly about tourism, a lot of people stay in Reno for cheap prices to travel to Tahoe to go skiing or hiking, it barely counts as a city with less than a million people living there.

It's also a major rail and road hub that links Northern California to the rest of the country east of the Sierras. A lot of material is shipped through Reno either on its way out of or into California. either by truck or train.

They are also building the new Tesla factory there for Elon Musk's electric cars, but yeah, it's Reno, you pretty much go there to gamble or go to Tahoe for outdoor activities.

The only issue with any faction conquering Reno in the scenario you are proposing is that if California gets knocked out, then pretty much every major city is roughly an 8-12 hour drive away from there, Salt Lake is 8-10 hours away, Vegas is 8 hours away, Boise is 8 hours away, Phoenix is 12 and that's pretty much it, the only cities close to Reno are in California, without San Diego, Reno is kind of just by its lonesome surrounded by a whole lot of desert and mountains in all directions with various small towns here and there. Beyond the armor depot there is also another air base an hour out of there and a large ammunition depot several hours away, pretty much the entire state of Nevada gets used to store a lot of military stuff since its dry and the government owns like 80% of the land in the state so they can just put stuff wherever they want, probably why they put Area 51 there too.

 

[Zontar]

I'd suspect that, if it was slow enough of a rise, that along the St-Lawrance Seaway there would be a dike built on each side as the water rises, as the topography of the river makes building such a dike an extension of already naturally occurring natural barriers in many places. With them in the right places, large swaths of Quebec, Ontario and Vermont which otherwise would be under water would be land below sea level Netherlands style.