Rebuilt levees may not sufficiently protect New Orleans

[sunny]

Well now, don't this just make me feel all warm and cozy.

cnn.com


Rebuilt levees may not sufficiently protect New Orleans
Repairs done without engineering guidance, experts say

Wednesday, November 2, 2005; Posted: 1:09 p.m. EST (18:09 GMT)

Senators are concerned that repairs to New Orlean's levees would not withstand another hurricane.
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New Orleans (Louisiana)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Repairs to New Orleans' levees may be insufficient to protect residents moving back to the devastated city if another hurricane comes before the tropical storm season ends this month, expert engineers said Wednesday.

Dozens of breaches continue to mar the city's levee system, including a large seep at the Industrial Canal last week, according to engineering experts who have examined the floodwalls.

Repairs have gotten better in recent days, the experts told a Senate panel investigating floodwall failures after Hurricane Katrina. But the initial rebuilding process was done with little or no engineering guidance and perhaps substandard materials, they said.

"Short term, without a storm, they are probably adequately safe," said Dr. Peter Nicholson, a University of Hawaii engineering professor, representing the American Society of Civil Engineers. "Certainly with a large storm, as we are not yet out of hurricane season, and certainly for next hurricane season, there is significant risk."

'High-water incident' feared
At the Industrial Canal levee, which abuts New Orleans' obliterated Ninth Ward, repairs to breaches "were not adequate for a high-water incidence -- for instance, another hurricane storm surge with the storm season that isn't yet behind us, or even a very high tide," said Raymond B. Seed. Seed, a University of California at Berkeley engineering professor, participated in a National Science Foundation study investigating the levee failures.

The large seep at that levee, which occurred October 24, "was not entirely unexpected," Seed told the panel.

However, he said, deeper walls "that will be far more stable than they were before" have been dug in at least some areas since the NSF first examined the levees.

"I don't think there is a long-term risk to the city of New Orleans," Seed said.

Collins: Findings 'troubling'
The findings highlighted what Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who chaired the panel, called troubling concerns about whether the repairs have been insufficient.

"These rebuilt levees may be at risk of failing in another storm, a disturbing finding that raises questions about the safety of the city's returning residents," Collins said. She heads the Senate Homeland Security committee, which was holding a hearing on why New Orleans' floodwalls failed after Katrina hit on August 29.

Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, top Democrat on the panel, said reconstruction efforts were done, "we all understand, in haste and in very urgent circumstances." But he echoed Seed's questions about whether the levees could now "protect the city of New Orleans from high tides, let alone another hurricane."

Two representatives for the Army Corps of Engineers, which is in charge of the levee reconstruction, did not immediately return calls for comment Wednesday.

Corp 'stretched very thin'
Seed described what he called "variable levels of cooperation" from the Corps, depending on personal contact, geographic location and even what day of the week. He said the NSF's team of engineers and the Corps spent a week's worth of back-and-forth communication "in which the responses, in our view, were insufficient and sometimes misdirected."

"It became clear to us that they were struggling to get the right kind of people put in charge of the projects to get the concerns addressed," Seed said.

The Corps has since corrected that gap amid what Seed called tremendous logistical difficulties. "The Corps of Engineers is working very hard at all this," he said. "They're also stretched very thin."

The Senate hearing also examined the NSF's report showing that the levees may not have been designed to protect a major city. Moreover, engineers who designed the levees did not fully consider the porousness of the Louisiana soil or make other calculations that would have pointed to the need for stronger floodwalls, the study shows.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[CajunMama]

I think the COE was more worried about getting the breaches repaired...and repaired quickly and getting the water pumped out of the city. I'm sure there could have been a better way but the water had to be stopped and there was no time to waste debating the best way to repair the levee.

Now that the levees had been temporarily repaired the COE can decide the best way to permanently repair the levees and do it properly.

[Lindaloo]

Repairing that part of the levee needed to be done a long time ago. And WAY before there was even a hurricane. You DO NOT wait to fix something after it fails for goodness sakes. "Properly" is an understatement. There are concrete barriers on parts of the levee that did not fail. um DUH!!

[vbhoutex]

I think the COE was more worried about getting the breaches repaired...and repaired quickly and getting the water pumped out of the city. I'm sure there could have been a better way but the water had to be stopped and there was no time to waste debating the best way to repair the levee.

Now that the levees had been temporarily repaired the COE can decide the best way to permanently repair the levees and do it properly.

The first thing is to get billions of dollars to do it right! The second thing is to keep all the crooks that took money previously allocated for the levees away from anything to do with the repairs and or upgrades needed to properly protect the city.

[sunny]

Yep Linda - this should have been done a long time ago. Nothing like waiting for the horse to get out before shutting the gate, right? They preached this scenario to us for as long as I can remember. Those levees should have been repaired a long time ago.

[Lindaloo]

I think the COE was more worried about getting the breaches repaired...and repaired quickly and getting the water pumped out of the city. I'm sure there could have been a better way but the water had to be stopped and there was no time to waste debating the best way to repair the levee.

Now that the levees had been temporarily repaired the COE can decide the best way to permanently repair the levees and do it properly.

The first thing is to get billions of dollars to do it right! The second thing is to keep all the crooks that took money previously allocated for the levees away from anything to do with the repairs and or upgrades needed to properly protect the city.

Another good point David.

[TSmith274]

Just heard today that the federal government has allocated $5 million to "study" a new revamped levee system to protect the city from a cat 5 hurricane. There are so many issues that relate to the security of New Orleans... like the coastal wetlands, etc.. But, the levee system that was in place prior to Katrina was a flawed design, and it was constructed horribly. I don't feel safe with the U.S. Corp building our new levees, if they ever come. We need the world's best minds working on this. And I hate to say it, because I'm as patriotic as anyone... but the best minds as it relates to this issue, apparently aren't in the U.S.

[wxman57]

Realistically, I doubt that anyone will be able to move back into the flooded areas until the levees are at least able to handle a Cat 1-2 hurricane, and that could take another year or more. Would you want to move into a bowl with makeshift levees that are just barely holding out the water during a drought? Currently, New Orleans has been very lucky that it has hardly even rained there in the past 2 months. They're safe from any more storms THIS season, but even a heavy rain this fall/winter could put the water back into the city. And even a tropical storm in May or June could put much of the area underwater again.

[HurricaneJim]

I think before anybody does anything they need to get some people in here from Holland and see what they have to say about it.