Nat'l Geo: A City's Faulty Armor-Experts Question Repairs to NO Levees

[babylonsister]

http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/levees/

As residents of New Orleans slowly rebuild their homes and lives after Hurricane Katrina, they are relying on the city's cordon of levees and floodwalls to protect them from the next big storm. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers declared almost a year ago that it had restored the barriers to pre-Katrina strength. But leading experts from the U.S. and the Netherlands say the system is riddled with flaws. They say that even a weaker storm than Katrina could breach the levees if it hit this season.

During a recent inspection of the levee system with National Geographic Magazine, engineering professor Bob Bea of the University of California, Berkeley, found multiple weak spots. The most serious flaws turned up in the rebuilt levees along the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet ship channel, which broke in more than 20 places when Katrina's storm surge pounded it, leading to devastating flooding in the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish. Bea found several areas where rainstorms have already eroded the newly rebuilt levees, particularly where they consist of a core of sandy and muddy soils topped with a cap of Mississippi clay. "It's like icing on the top of angel food cake," Bea says. "These levees will not be here if you put a Katrina surge against them."

Bea also found that decade-old gaps remain in the floodwalls lining the Orleans Avenue Canal, and hurricane-damaged sections of the walls along the London Avenue and 17th Street Canals have not been repaired or replaced. Even more troubling, water appears to be seeping under the stout new floodwall erected along the Industrial Canal to protect the Lower Ninth Ward. The new wall sits atop steel sheet piles driven 20 feet into the ground, but water from holes in the canal bed, excavated before Katrina or scoured by the storm, may be seeping under the barrier through permeable layers of sand and silt. Bea, who actually tasted the seepage to make sure it was brackish—a sign that it was coming from the canal—says the wall could fail in the next hurricane.

Bea, co-leader of a Berkeley team that investigated the Katrina levee failures, is now serving as an expert witness in a multi-billion-dollar class-action lawsuit against the corps. But he is not alone in his criticisms. A Dutch engineer recently visited some of the new floodgates and pumps installed at the mouths of the city's three main drainage canals. His verdict: They may be "doomed to fail" in the next big storm.

The engineer, who asked not to be named because he sometimes collaborates with the corps, notes that the gates have no mechanism to remove sediment and other debris that might keep them from closing as a storm approaches. Instead, the corps says it will rely on divers to check for obstructions and clear them away. The engineer also points out that the pumps installed last year to pump rainwater out of the city when the gates are closed vibrated excessively and had to be repaired. The corps says the pumps are working well now, but some other experts say they have not been fully tested.

more...

[Blackhatjack]

1. If another Katrina-like Hurricane strikes N.O., they won't be able to say "we had no idea....."

It is further proof that the Bush Administration has no real concern about rebuilding and securing the City of New Orleans. Of course, if there were another breach of the levees, that would insure that displaced residents never return. That would make it easier for their land to be taken by eminent domain and turned over to corporate interests for pennies on the dollar.

[babylonsister]

2. Maybe that's exactly what they're waiting for, another storm. Then

they can build the levees the right way, with the 'right' people living there.

[global1]

3. Now If I Were The President When Katrina Happened And Embarassed My Administration.....

I would have poured all kinds of money into the region and jumped all over the Army Corps of Engineers to build the bestest, strongest levee's ever. I would want to restore NO to even better than it ever was in order to clear my good name and get back into the good graces of the American people.

I don't see the same passion coming from *Co.

Methinks that perhaps we should have Waxman issuing up subpoenas around this NO/Katrina disaster and its aftermath. Probably would uncover a completely new scandal brought to you by the fine people of *Co.

[Blackhatjack]

4. It was reported that while people were drowning the large hotels wanted permission to open casinos..

There were meetings about how to profit off the situation.

This did not just happen. It reveals the motives of the parties involved.

[KamaAina]

8. Nagin went so far as to float a "casino district" trial balloon

it probably died less on its own lack of merit than because it would have infringed on Harrah's single land-based casino license. :eyes:

[Blackhatjack]

10. I think you are right. However, it points to the fact that there has been a plan from the beginning

to 'remake' N.O. rather than 'rebuild' it.

All to the advantage of those who would benefit financially.

[Solly Mack]

5. I attended a class on how Amsterdam was built

while on a trip to A-town ... walking the streets afterward, all I could think was America could save New Orleans too...with time, effort and money.

But will America?


There are no guarantees - but you can still do everything possible..and New Orleans is worth it.

I don't want the flavor of New Orleans changed though. Remove the people and you remove the flavor.

New Orleans is a historical pearl and a rare one at that - she is her people, her food, her houses, her sound - her flavor.

[babylonsister]

6. Totally agree, Solly, so am disgusted when I read stuff like this.

Why isn't NO worth it?

[necso]

7. "Even more troubling,

water appears to be seeping under the stout new floodwall erected along the Industrial Canal to protect the Lower Ninth Ward. "

"'There is 1,900 feet <580 meters> of I-wall that actually dips—sinking from its own weight,' he said."

Slumping (settling) and seepage (undermining) were identified as problems (I seem to remember) with the levees before Katrina -- and as possible causes of levee failure during that storm. And I (seem to) remember engineering complaints about some repairs (wrong materials in earthen banks, etc.)

I wouldn't put much faith in the repairs.

And you would think that after the previous disaster, inspections of the levees would be constant and thorough (including checking actual height), with potential problems being taken seriously.

[alfredo]

9. Why am I not surprised?