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The Flood


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80 square miles of flooded city
80 square miles of flooded city
Dozens of levee failures occurred at five major sites around the city and filled three of the city's largest basins with water. The traditional high ground near the river, the westbank and most of Metairie were spared. Click the image to see the depths around the city.

How could this happen? In retrospect it is clear, that there was questionable levee engineering and maintenance that left the city at risk. The levee failures have been examined by engineers from across the world. Katrina was a force of nature and its destruction a "natural catastrophe" but the flooding of New Orleans triggered by Katrina speaks more of ignorance, arrogance and neglect.

The LSU Hurricane center initially took the lead investigating the causes, then the National Science Foundation with researchers from Berkeley, the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Corp's own Interagency Performance Evaluation Team all weighed in. Their findings were that the levees as they were, would never work. Design errors put the entire system at risk. Subsidence caused the existing levees to droop well below their specified height.

Some citizens continue to believe that an independent "8/29 Commission" is needed to get to the bottom of the problems. The levees that failed were federal levees designed, built and maintained by the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the replacements are being designed and built by that same agency.

  • Six Floods : Katrina's flooding can be more easily understood by considering the six :: Continue reading...
  • Animated Deluge : Times Picayune Macromedia Flash graphic showing the extent of the flooding in the city.
    :: Continue reading...
  • Foresight and Hindsight : The 911 Commission documented the intelligence failures prior to the :: Continue reading...

  • Now that the levees are being rebuilt questions are being raised about whether they can protect the city from a category 3 storm much less a monster 4 or 5. Alternatives are being considered. Flood gates at the Rigolets, Chef, Intracoastal Waterway and the lake canal entrances have been proposed.

    The westbank is being considered but the word on the flood control structure in the Gulf Intracoastal Water Way (GIWW) at the Hero Canal proposed by the BNOB as necessary to protect the westbank from surge up the GIWW is that it should have been recommended twenty years ago. Once again we are faced with doing what we know is right versus doing the expedient. The Corps of Engineers is clearly behind the expedient. DO we need to drown the westbank too?

    The federal government is moving in the right direction but will have to display considerably more resolve in order to make New Orleans attractive for investment. The Corps is finally on record admitting that it did something wrong.  Now will it marshall its resources to become an active participant in making things right?



    Slowly, as the fog lifts, we begin to see the facts for what they are. Levees are just a temporary fix. To restore safety is to restore the wetlands. The measures needed to accomplish this goal are growing tougher every day. Removing the river levees below Belle Chasse and building a massive diversion at Donaldsonville would be a start. It will cost somewhere between $14 and $40 billion. New Orleans may be worth that much.

    The Storm The Rescue


    Created : 12/29/2005 1:50:36 AM Updated: 7/19/2010 6:35:13 AM

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