Post Katrina the Corps has been jumping through hoops to find a way to protect New Orleans. Now in 2011 the plan seems to be coming together and many projects are complete or nearing completion. The Corps provides a good video overview at its website linked here: http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/hps2/videos/flyover/flyover_video.asp It has been quite a challenge getting this far but we are now well beyond what was called a "System in Name Alone" and seem to be actually providing levee and floodwall based perimeter protection system. Much of the system is permanent in nature with project lifetimes over 20 years only the Lake Pontchartrain outlet canals remain protected by temporary structures due for replacement in 2014. Restoration of the surrounding coastal wetlands remains incomplete (not even started).

The following provide some of the history of the project over the six years following Katrina's visit in 2005:

The question remains just what is the plan and will it work. There are so many critics it is hard to hear any consensus emerging from the din. Let's take a quick look at the status of flood protection eighteen months after the storm.

Project Guardian, Initial Repairs : Congress approved $2.9 billion and the administration has released most of what was needed to restore the levee system surrounding New Orleans to what it was supposed to have been pre-Katrina. That work was substantially completed by June 2006 in a big push called Project Guardian.  There are just a few lingering items. The damaged parts of New Orleans are now safer than they were before Katrina struck. That is not saying much and saying it disguises the fact that New Orleans is not protected against a 100 year storm.

Outfall Canal Flood Gates and Pumping Stations Fundamental flaws in the drainage canal levee designs were addressed by installing temporary flood gates at the mouths of the canals. However the temporary pumps installed to remove rainwater when the flood gates are closed remain delayed by vibration problems. Even with these temporary pumps rainwater accumulation in a major tropical event could flood the city again to about five feet. Plans for internal pumping, ponding and protection against rainwater induced flooding have gone nowhere. Someday permanent structures, similar to those in Jefferson Parish, will have to be installed to replace the temporary floodwalls. Congress has not approved the state-of-the art pumping stations requested by the Administration.

Safe Houses Jefferson Parish has built several monuments to Aaron Broussard, oops, I meant to say Category Five Survival Structures (aka Safe Houses) next to their pumping stations. Stand near one of these and try to imagine the extent of the disaster they have been built to survive. With any imagination at all you'll come to realize that although these structures may save the lives of the pump operators, there will be absolutely nothing else left to save.

100 Year Storm The Corps is working on improvements around the city designed to protect New Orleans from a 100 year storm. Congress has allocated $6 billion more for these improvements. Some of the improvements make sense others don't. Building levees without restoring the wetlands is a losing proposition. The complete plan is due by the end of 2007. Gen. Van Antwerp (replaced Strock as Corps Commander in 2007) announced that 100 year protection will be in place by 2011.

Mr.GO remains a matter of bitter debate. Dredging has been suspended. Closure seems probable. The levee has been rebuilt but money for armor approved by Congress was withdrawn by the Administration.  Erosion of the new levee is already apparent. Three foot deep gullies can be seen in some places. Over-topping by a storm would cause a repeat failure.  Reconstruction of natural ridges punctured by MrGO is necessary to close the Hurricane Highway and has yet to be approved. A comprehensive plan to recreate the damaged wetlands and barrier islands seaward of the levees remains a dream. More fresh water diversions like Caernavon and so called "leaky levees" punctured with closeable culverts could offer solutions.

West Bank  The status of west bank protection is unchanged and unacceptable.  Small levees and an incomplete Harvey Canal flood gate remain. The overall design is the real issue. Finally in  November 2006 someone in the Corps woke up and realized that the only real hope for real protection would require closing the Bayou aux Carpes opening in the main protection levees south of Harvey. Local opposition focuses around the Corps announcement that they would pursue this project instead of completing the ongoing work in the Harvey Canal resulting in more delays. There was more uproar in February 2007 when the President's Budget Proposal was released and it contained provisions that diverted $1.5 billion from eastbank projects to westbank protection. In 2008 work began on the West Closure Complex and by 2011 this gap in protection of the Westbank had been closed.

Category Five protection remains the Holy Grail and is seemingly out of reach. The barrier islands continue to erode. Flood walls across the Rigolets and Chef Menture, a dam sealing the Industrial Canal at Lake Pontchartrain, and flood walls in the GIWW just west of the Mr.GO are the projects that could make this city viable for the next hundred years. Ultimately removing the Mississippi River levees below Belle Chasse, rebuilding natural ridges in the marshes, sealing now unused oil field access canals, and building huge fresh water and silt diversions from the Old River Control Structure south will be necessary to restore the region.

The Corps is studying these and other initiatives as ordered by Congress. They will report when they are good and darned ready, but no sooner than mid-2007. Their preliminary draft issued in 2006 in response to Congressional fast tracking pressures was little more than a methodology assessment, we can hope for more in the next release.

The Corps even floated a proposal to allow emergency projects to bypass normal environmental assessments. Their logic is that impact studies just take too long but ignoring environmental impact is what got us to this point.