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The river made New Orleans great. Drainage made it livable. Before the back swamps were drained as many as 10,000 New Orleanians died each year of Yellow Fever, malaria and other mosquito borne diseases. (do you understand why we celebrate our biggest festival in the winter? and why each month our bills from the Sewerage and Water Board include an entry for "mosquito control"). Canals and waterways provided commerce and drainage. Levees protect the populace from flooding. Since 1913 mechanical pumps have helped drain and protect the city from its surrounding waterways.

The open canals of New Orleans shown above are augmented by many more miles of canals that have been fully enclosed and now occupy underground culverts. The ASCE has recommended enclosing the three outfall canals along the lakefront eliminating the need for levees.

  • Canals : Commerce and drainage were the original goals of the canals. :: Continue reading...
  • Drainage : :: Continue reading...
  • Intercoastal Waterway : Two huge breaks in the Intercoastal Waterway levee at Michoud were :: Continue reading...
  • Mississippi River : At New Orleans the Mississippi River is a fascinating monster. New :: Continue reading...
  • Mississippi River Gulf Outlet - MRGO : Angling southeast from the city the MRGO provides a shorter path to the :: Continue reading...

  • Compare the Orleans canals in the eastern half of the satellite image to the similar canals along the lake front in Jefferson Parish. You'll have to look closely at the image or zoom in and pan across the lakefront. Jefferson Parish is to the west of the the 17th street canal. Its Bonnable canal is east of the causeway and all the others in Jefferson are west of the causeway.
    • The Jefferson Canals are sealed from the lake by pumping stations positioned at the entrance to the lake. Breakwaters further protect the canal mouth and pumping station. Because of this design, levees are relatively unimportant.
    • In Orleans the canals drive straight into the city for miles with their levees providing the first and only line of defense.
    Even with this design, disaster forecasters expect Jefferson to be flooded by a slow moving Category 3 storm. Jefferson did experience street flooding by rising rainwater when its pumps were turned off tuning the storm.

    As of December 15th Donald Powell announced that Louisiana will get Cat 3+ Levee Protection including state of the art pumping stations at the mouths of three canals (17th, London, Orleans). Congress approved the levees but not the pumping stations. The Corps' Project Guardian promises what Congress approved by June 1, 2006. Congress continues to debate the balance. Th Corps drops a bombshell in March, telling us it will cost $9.1 billion. But their plan is just "levees only." Doesn't their memory include the last time they said that. The result was the Great Flood of 1927.

    Stable or Sinking? Wetlands


    Created : 8/16/2005 5:55:24 PM Updated: 5/15/2011 3:10:13 PM

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