Waters of Death

Waters of Death
Episode Information
Episode	10
Season	1
No. in Series	10
Air Date	June 23, 2009
Directed by	James Grant Goblin
Produced by	Louis C. Tarantino (Executive Producer) Douglas J. Cohen (Executive Producer) James Grant Goblin
Episode Guide
Previous	Roads to Nowhere
Next	Wrath of God

Waters of Death is the tenth and final episode of season one of Life After People: The Series. It originally aired on June 23, 2009.

Synopsis

In a world devoid of humans, water that gave life to mankind, destroy what left of mankind. The cities of New Orleans and Seattle flood, while Dubai and Moscow experience the corrosive weather and humidity. Creatures from the aquarium of New Orleans died off to lice becoming extinct. Saltwater then takes it toll on the Space Needle and much of New Orleans floods from the failure of the levees including One Shell Square. Satellites that provided weather information turns into a weather hazard and once search for oil underwater, the bodies at the cemetery might turn one. The episode examines the areas of New Orleans that were damaged and abandoned in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Plot

Prologue

Water covered the Earth by 80% and humans build their civilization on the remaining 20% by harnessing its power from lakes and oceans being harvested for food to rivers being harnessed for irrigation and electricity. After people, the power of water will flow unchecked and will tear down the civilization it helped create.

1 Day After People

At a height of 510 miles, weather satellites soar over the north and south poles which orbit the Earth 14 times a day. Once 6 billion people depended on the data it provided on sea level, rainfall, and humidity on how water affects the world. After people, although their solar panels continue to power for decades, the ground stations that the satellites send their data are empty. Without it, there is no one in Moscow to be warned of a sudden cold front, no one to be told if a day is one of the 25 days a year when rain will fall in Dubai, and no one will be warned if another hurricane threatens the levees in New Orleans.

At New Orleans, the city's French quarter dates back to 1718 when the government of Louis XV built a trade and military outpost along the Mississippi River. Under the American flag, the quarter became famous for its music, revelry, and Mardi Gras celebrations. After people, the party's over forever.

However, not just for humans but also many animals left behind that will not last long, with the death count begins at the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, just a stone's throw from the Mississippi River. The aquarium can support over 12,000 marine animals in one million gallons of fresh and salt water. In the first few days after people, some fish will starve however the real problem is the sudden lack of electricity to the aquarium's pumps. 50 pumps kept the fish healthy by adding oxygen to the water and removing waste 24 hours a day, 7 days a week during the time of human. James Arnold stated that after people, the emergency generator would run for about a week and after it run out of fuel, there'll be no one to fix it.

2 Days After People

2000 miles away in Seattle, Washington, built along the banks of the saltwater Puget Sound, is filling with scavengers. The Pike Place Fish Market, first opened in 1907, was where fishmongers sold their catches from the waters of the world. Unless it's frozen, fish will not stay fresh for more than 48 hours and as they decompose, it release an organic compound called trimethylamine where the stench tells hungry creatures to run to the market. Tim Nelson stated without people to refrigerated the product, it will have rapid decomposition and animals like rats, coyotes and raccoons start come to the outskirts of downtown and wouldn't take long to find the Pike Place Market.

3 Days After People

At the Gulf of Mexico, some 3,800 oil platforms still brave the waves and continue to pump one and a half million barrels of a day. Carlos Gonzalez stated that if people disappear, the platforms could operate under their own power for a few days because of the amount of fuel it can carry and the emergency generations would kick in for another few days. He continues that what happen is that the pipelines would fill up because there'd be no consumption causing cascading effect of shutdowns. 34,000 miles of under sea pipes have been clog with undelivered oil, but water tight valves prevent the oil from leaking into the ocean.

Back on shore, billions of man's former companions are about to become extinct. Gene Kritsky explains that at least three species of insects would probably care and it would be lice from its 3 species called head lice, body lice, and crab lice which are endemic to the human species. Some 3 million years ago, lice began evolving along with humans and in the modern day, their DNA constrains them to specific areas of the body a restricted diet of human blood. Gene Kritsky stated after people, lice have nowhere else to go. Without human blood, the lice die within 2 days and the creatures that coexisted with man from prehistory, join their former hosts in oblivion.

1 Week After People

In the vast fresh water bayous outside of New Orleans, one and a half million alligators barely notice the absence of people, but a few have found some unexcepted treats are escaped pets, looking for a cool drink. Alligators have the strongest bite of any animal and in the time of humans, alligators infested southern cities including Houston and Miami, injuring hundreds of people and killing more than a dozen. After people, the thristy dogs are in danger. Raymond Coppinger stated that alligators catch the dogs at the waterhole as an act of surprise.

At the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans, the emergency generator has shut down after a week. The first to die are jellyfish, unable to keep themselves afloat because they depend on water currents. When the artificial currents stop, the bloodless, nerveless creatures sink to the bottom where water pressure pushes through their gelatinous bodies and disintegrate. The aquarium's one million gallons of water was cleaned and recirculated through a too miles of plastic piping in the time of humans and the waste was not dumped buy eaten by trillions of bacteria called nitrosomonas which were placed in the pipes by the aquarium's staff. The ammonia-gobbling nitrosomonas produce their own waste which were then consumed by another bacteria called nitrobacter, making the system worked perfectly as long as it was operated by trained people. James Arnold stated that without people, it would slow down and stop. In the confines of an aquarium, the ammonia filled waste crowds the tank as the oxygen is depleted and when the fish breathe, the ammonia poisons their systems as sharks to snapper gasp for air and hemorrhage internally.

It already happened the last time the aquarium was left without people. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, flooding neighborhoods and knocking out power around the city including at the aquarium. It stands on ground several feet above sea level and the aquarium wasn't flooded, however 3 days after Katrina, police evacuated the nine person support team left behind to care for the marine life. Then, the emergency generator shut down, recirculating pumps stopped, and the catastrophe began as the fish used up the tank's oxygen then suffocated or choked on their own waste. On the fourth day after the power shut down, the aquarium staff return. Tom Dyer recalls that they can smell the Gulf of Mexico exhibit before they got in the building and when they went on top of the exhibit with their flashlights, they could see large sharks and redfish floating and the whole surface was covered with dead animals. The flashlights couldn't penetrate more than an inch into the warm water due to it being blackened with decomposing fish, suddenly something broke the surface. Tom Dyer recalls that they saw it and they're thinking what is that. It was a tarpon, a salt water fish that can grow up to 6 feet or longer and can breach the surface to gulp air. The tarpon's dual ability saved it when all its water breathing companions died and in fact all the air breathers survived, including the 2 river otters, the penguins, and the rare blue eyed crocodile. After people, the aquarium generator loses power in a week and as the fish die, the waste eating bacteria have an ammonia banquet and the Katrina disaster is repeated but without last minute rescues.

1 Year After People

Buildings along the world's almost 182,000 miles of coastline are being infiltrated by humidity. In Dubai, along the Persian Gulf, humidity is witheringly high between 80% and 90% which poses an unique threat to the Burj Al Arab Hotel. Rising up on an artificial island in the Persian Gulf, the 1,050 foot sail-shaped hotel was a symbol of the country when it was completed in 1999. But like all the high tech towers in Dubai, the design that attracted tourists is a magnet for destruction. Steven S. Ross stated that the skyscrapers of Dubai are very tall and have many great mechanical devices to keep them running properly like air conditioning and mechanical temperature controls. He continues that the area is also very humid and its right by a body of salt making the climate and the very nature of the kinds of structures is working against them. The Burj Al Arab air conditioners battled heat and humidity in the time of humans, now hot salt air seeps in, and mold, bacteria and yeast eat away the linens and walls while the 9,000 tons of steel begin to corrode. Charles Roeder stated that the salt water air enhance corrosion by a factor of 2 or 3 while Steven S. Ross stated that the buildings would start to deteriorate within a year or two.

In New Orleans, the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas suffered little outside deterioration after a year but inside of it, there is only one survivor, the white alligator. Alligators can survive for a year without foot and can conserve energy in extreme situations by reducing their heart rate to 1 or 2 beats per minute. After a year, there will be few heart beats left and the white alligator dies.

4 Years After People

Some cities have fallen victims to floods. and while water's initial attack can be brutal, the real devastation often comes after a long term siege. Without people to repair the damage, homes succumb to decay and the foundations of buildings slowly erode away. It's a future that's already visited New Orleans.

Abandoned areas of New Orleans

Some areas of New Orleans were overwhelmed by storm waters on August 28, 2005 when Hurricane Katrina overwhelmed the levees and tore through the city, destroying 160,000 homes, and 4 years later, the scars remain. Mike Folse shows the waterline from Hurricane Katrina that is 17 feet above the ground. After 4 years, mud and debris have been cleared and the 270 flood gates and the 520 miles of levees have been fortified with new homes are being built. However, the recovery has lagged in parts of the lower Ninth Ward, providing a grim preview of life after people. 19,000 people once lived in the area, including few celebrities like rock n' roll legend Fats Domino and others were part of the lifeblood of New Orleans, staffing the hotels, playing music in the cafes. Many lost almost everything they had to Katrina and 4 years later, fewer than 20% had returned. Mike Folse stated that Hurricane Katrina destroyed houses to the point it couldn't be repaired.

The ruins of the homes are a warning to other flood prone communities. The roof of a home buckled and broke under the flood's weight as the waters surged in from above and through the walls & windows. Mike Folse shows a typical wood-framed house that one would find in the lower Ninth Ward or St. Bernard Parish and explains that the water was above 16 feet high in the area and after Katrina have let the wood continued to deteriorate. One material has endured the destructive power of water, the ceramic tiles, bonded to the hidden concrete slab, may be the last part of the house to go. The clay and water compound has been sealed with a chemical glaze that keeps out heat, moisture, & bacteria, and most ceramics combine elements of oxygen or nitrogen with aluminum, calcium, or silicon. It have a strong, crystal, and atomic structure which resists moisture and it kept out water and decay for centuries around the world. Mike Folse predicts that the floor will last hundreds of years. However, the floor will soon be buried by what's left of the roof. Mike Folse stated that a good gust of wind will hit it and knock it over the rest of the way due to it doesn't have a lot of residual strength in it as the bricks fall over ad the frame doesn't have a lot of resistance to wind. He predicts that it will be a pile of rubble in 10 years or next year if another major hurricane hits the area. Between the 18th century and first decade of the 21st century, New Orleans suffered a dozen direct hits from hurricanes and severe tropical storms but drainage pumps always dried things out and people always rebuilt. Mike Folse told a story about Hurricane Betsy in 1965 where the area is eight feet of water while St. Bernard Parish is 3 feet of water which took the neighborhood a year to recover. He continues that Betsy was nothing like Katrina, which was 10 times worse. Many homes in St. Bernard Parish not only bear the marks of Katrina's savagery and man's neglect, but also show the spread of a microscopic predator that infest all homes threatened by water. Inside the apartments, high moisture levels encourage the growth of mold spores and out of more than 100,000 kinds of mold, the most common species associated with water damage in homes are stachybotrys. It decomposes the dry wall of the wood beneath, undermining the structure of the walls and ceilings which leaves the apartments more vulnerable to the hurricanes that are guaranteed to strike again. Mike Folse stated after 20 years, the buildings will be piles of rubble on the ground with trees and vines growing over the rubble.

20 Years After People

The 7,000 foot seawall protecting downtown of Seattle from the salt waters of Puget Sound is about to give way. Tim Nelson stated that downtown area of Seattle at one time was a salt marsh and the seawalls are built to keep the tide from coming up and into the town. It was first built in 1934, the wall's wood supports have been long been undermined by flea-sized, 14 legged crustaceans called gribbles. In order to feed their need for nitrogen, the gribbles chew through timbers to eat microorganisms in the wood. Gribbles have wrecked two of Columbus ships in 1502 and ate through all the exterior wood on the sunken Titanic. After people, the gribbles have doomed the Seattle seawall causing it to burst and uncontrolled seawater rushes in, turning much of the center of Seattle back into a saltwater marsh.

30 Years After People

Despite damaged storm drains and the failure of the seawalls, Seattle is high and dry compared to New Orleans. Mike Folse stated that New Orleans in 30 years will be flooded and would have fish & snakes with the tops of houses sticking out and vines growing all over turning it a kind of jungle that grown around the remnants of structures. However, it is not the result of the failed levees, it still standing. The New Orleans Achilles heel was more than 150 drainage pumps, without people to run the pumps and little natural evaporation, the lower parts of the city is filled with rain. Although Seattle had a reputation for rainfall, New Orleans actually average almost twice as much, about 5 feet a year. Ironically, the levees that were built to keep water out holds the flood in creating new kinds of aquariums for the city. Gail Gainey stated that the marble floors of some of the hotels would be unrecognizable because of under layers of sediment and would be inhabited by clams, crabs, tube worms, and eventually nurseries for some of the larger fish.

50 Years After People

There is carnage from 200 to 22,000 miles above the Earth's ocean. Almost 3,000 active satellites monitored the stars, the weather, and life below during the time of humans and in February 2009, a defunct Russian satellite crashed into a US satellite in a 600 piece crash. Without people to control the crowded space ways, accidents have multiplied with fragments strike at 15,000 miles an hour. The collisions sends shards smashing into other satellites, even some satellites slamming each other, sending some down in flames and to be extinguished in the sea.

In Seattle, the 605 foot tall Space Needle, built as a symbol of the 1962 World's Fair once lured visitors with it's spectacular has its windows all been blown out, destroyed by corrosion from Seattle's rain. Ron Sevart stated that the glass is expected to last 20 to 25 years if it didn't have proper maintenance which makes corrosion pinch the glass and cracks it becoming failures. It took 24 people and $2 million a year to maintain the Space Needle's structure and safety in the time of humans, and while the tall structure was an occasional target for lightning, it will not perish by fire. After 50 years, the exterior has flaked away and steel faces corrosion with some of it from an unexpected source of water stored in the trees that have reclaimed the city. Charles Roeder stated that the trees dump leaves and pine needles on the ground and some fall on the base. He continues if the leaves fell in the area, it will capture moisture, hold it for weeks and months and make it acidic along with the rain causing the whole process to accelerate corrosion. Although the Space Needle will stand for many decades to come, the corrosive power of water will one day bring it down. Meanwhile, it's former high altitude restaurant is a roasting place for peregrine falcons, the fastest creatures on Earth, whom swoop down at their prey at more than 270 miles an hour. Daniel T. Blumstein stated that peregrines naturally nest on cliffs and by putting a nest on a ledge outside a window is similar to nesting on a ledge on a cliff making it a good home if there's pigeons living below a nest.

Other birds have changed more than their habitats, In cities around the world, songbirds have changed their tunes and their frequencies. Researchers were amazed that recordings of songbird mating calls from the 1970s sounded different from the same kinds of birds in the areas in the time of humans 30 years later. The reason being quiet country becoming noisy city, making the birds adapted. Daniel T. Blumstein stated that birds shifting and singing, raising the pitch and frequency of their songs to sing in order to get their message across above the background noise. After cities being silent for several generations of birds, the mating calls have returned to their lower frequencies but without humans around to record them.

In Dubai, the Burj Al Arab can no longer hold out against nature's attack. The metal skin of the building has fallen away and corroded and 50 years after people have let the mold-ridden structure falls apart.

At the Gulf of Mexico, a century of hurricanes has reduced the 3,800 oil platforms to one. Carlos Gonzalez stated that every time there's a hurricane, they'll lose about 3% or 4% of the platform fleet statistically. Over a 20 year period, a 9,000 ton oil platform can sink several feet into the soft sea bed of the Gulf of Mexico and so every year, it makes it more vulnerable to the ocean waves which can top 50 feet. Carlos Gonzalez stated that the last platform would be a big rust bucket with a missing deck, barnacles, and marine growth. A final wave during a hurricane pushes the rusty hulk over the waiting embrace and soar of the deep Gulf of Mexico.

110 Years After People

Marine animals have created new habitats from the ruins of main's achievements. Gail Gainey stated that they'll find sunken vessels, fallen bridges, brick rack, flooded buildings, and anything that provides some sort of a structure makes the marine organisms to start colonize them. Even the sunken oil platforms have become habitats with limited risk of oil seeping out of the undersea pipelines. Carlos Gonzalez stated it will take a 60 year period for the systems that containing the oil to fail sufficiently to start oozing oil and at the same time, it will degrade, gel and less fluid. He continues that the automatic systems are designed to protect even without people. The platforms are fist colonized by barnacles, followed by sponges, corals, and oysters. Gail Gainey stated there will going to be invertebrates and reef fish that start to make homes in the crevices and the hideaways. Within 5 years of the platform sinking, the sharks arrive and the food chain is complete. Gail Gainey stated it would be an entire ecosystem where it might not have been anything before. Below the waves or above, water leave nothing untransformed.

125 Years After People

Moscow's colorful St. Basil's Cathedral still stand in Red Square and in fact, the disappearance of man has actually helped preserve it. The foundations of the 16th century structure were weakened by vibrations from tank parades and rock concerts in the time of humans with an early 21st century Russian government report warned that "if nothing is done, in 100 years we could lose it". Charles Roeder stated that buildings seems a lot like people and most people don't die instantly. He continues that one thing starts to fail and another which what happens with most of people and it's a cascading effect. St. Basil's death knells comes from decades of water damage. Cracked drainage pipes spills out rain and snow forming a swamp that turns to ice in the winter, pushing against the outsider walls. A final crack sends the central bell tower crashing into one of the domes of the eastern wall, which then gives way and more domes fall, pulling wood, brick, and sacred icons of St. Basil's Cathedral down into the swamp.

150 Years After People

In New Orleans, the levees are being eroded by a relative of the beaver called nutria, a 2 foot long, 20 pound rodent that can swim and loves to borrow into the levees in search of food and shelter, clawing away at the structures. New Orleans actually sent police SWAT teams after the rodents in the time of humans and in the 1990's, more than 14,000 were shot. After people, the nutrias have torn apart the levees in a thousand places, the barriers fall apart, and the waters of the Mississippi tumble in to join with Lake Pontchartrain. Ironically, the failure of the levees actually reduces the flood waters which top 20 feet in places. Mike Folse stated that if the levees fail, the water will be sea level due to the ground being two to four feet below sea level and it would fluctuate with the tides. Although the flood tide is lower, the introduction of more saltwater hastens the corrosion of the base of the buildings.

200 Years After People

In Seattle, corrosion is eating away at the support of the Space Needle. Charles Roeder stated as when the roof starts to leak, moisture starts to get inside the structure and the steel corrodes. Ron Sevart stated that the weakest link are the joints and support bracing in place that have the most opportunity for corrosion to get into some cracks that take hold and expand within. Weakened from a 100 wounds over 200 years, the symbol of hope and progress from 1962 gives up the fight and the Space Needle collapses into the ruined downtown Seattle.

300 Years After People

In the flooded marshlands of New Orleans, the tallest building has lasted the longest, the 697 foot corporate headquarters of One Shell Square. Its windows are long gone, but the structure remains. Mike Folse stated that the concrete is poured around the steel columns and the steel is fairly well protected and will last hundred years. However water has been corroding the building for 300 years while more than 20 major hurricanes have wiped around it's walls and girders. It took a final category 4 hurricane to prove too much as wind and waves bring the tower hurtling down to the base of flooded city.

1,000 Years After People

The buildings of New Orleans are gone, but something else survives in the mud, the Mardi Gras beads. Strings of bright baubles worn to celebrate Fat Tuesday, it was originated in the 1920's as necklaces of cheap glass and the beads are now form of sunken treasure. Mike Folse stated that the Mardi Gras beads are plastic coming from China and while the strings would break, the little beads in mud and muck would survive for thousands of years.

In the time of humans, staying above the mud was a prime concern when people thought about their deaths and wanted their embalmed bodies of be safe from floods in above ground stone mausoleums, and so the first above ground cemetery in New Orleans was built in 1789, the year George Washington became president. It was a practical solution to the problem of burying the dead in soggy ground, as well as an imitation of the aristocratic fashion in France and Spain of building impressive family tombs and eventually, more than 40 of the cities of the dead rose up in New Orleans. Impressive and mysterious, the carved tombs and marble mausoleums not only attracted prospective occupants but curious tourists as well. Although some of the above ground cemeteries were flooded during Hurricane Katrina, there was little damage to the tombs or the corpses. The cities of the dead withstood the worst effects for more than 200 years, but after people and several thousand years, geologic forces pile up sediments and the city of New Orleans lie beneath the Mississippi delta. Jan Zalasiewicz stated that New Orleans is subsiding and it cannot stop. As water rise, the dead lie undisturbed no longer. Jan Zalasiewicz stated that there will be mud seeping into the coffin which begin to encase and envelop the remains of the body.

10 Million Years After People

The fossilized corpses of New Orleans are a mile and a half underground, where pressure and heat combine to cause a further transformation. Jan Zalasiewicz stated that the temperatures will be boiling water and the bones are dense making the soft tissues to carbonized which begin to form oil which the mobile hydrocarbons will migrate up through the sediments that has accumulated on top of the cemeteries. Humans who explored the Gulf of Mexico have become oil themselves as the fossil fuels they once exploited to run their cities.

Epilogue

Man once probed the deep to provide food and energy for his cities and machines, and many of those achievements have sunk beneath the waves forever. Water ravaged the cities with floods from the sea and rain from the heavens. Towers built in months or years have been pulled down over decades by slow and unstoppable corrosion. Temples to eternal fates have proved to be short lived and monuments in stone were just sand castles to be washed away. Mankind used water to radically reshape the landscapes of the world, and the structures & creatures that survive after man inherit an Earth forever changed by the force and fury of the waters of death. One more obstacle would be overcome in life after people.

Transcript

Life After People Wiki has a transcript for this episode. To see it, click here.

Credits

Flight 33 Productions

• Executive Producers
  • Louis C. Tarantino
  • Douglas J. Cohen
• Producer
  • James Grant Goblin
• Director
  • James Grant Goblin

Errors

• Hurricane Katrina made landfall New Orleans on August 29, 2005 instead of the show information of August 28, 2005.
• The 2009 satellite collision were reported to be at least 1,000 pieces of debris.

Trivia

• It is the second episode where the abandon locale featured is in the city that the episode is featured in.
• It is the third episode where the writer is uncredited.

Gallery

TBA