Levees in New Orleans to Be Rebuilt

[AussieMark]

Levees in New Orleans to Be Rebuilt

CHALMETTE, La. - Even though Hurricane Katrina exposed the weakness of the levee system around New Orleans, officials won't rebuild the barriers higher and better — at least not right away.

Col. Lewis Setliff, the engineer overseeing the levee repairs for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said the Corps only has the authority to rebuild levees to the strength they were prior to the storms that damaged them.

The levees that broke were built to withstand Category 3 hurricanes, which have winds up to 130 mph. Hurricane Katrina's winds were about 145 mph — a Category 4 — when the storm hit Louisiana.

Without approval from Congress, the Army engineers cannot build the levees higher and stronger. And even if Congress were to give that approval soon, it would come too late to allow them to be finished by the time the 2006 hurricane season begins in June.

"We've got eight months and counting," Setliff said. He added, though, that the levee system in its broken and heavily eroded state might not do much to stop flooding should the area get hit again before the current hurricane season ends in a month.

Setliff said about 10 percent of the New Orleans-area levee system was damaged, mostly because of water running over the tops of the barriers. To repair those levees, crews must first pack down what is left of them, filling in holes scoured out by water. Dirt will then be added to get them back to their original height.

The levee break that remains a mystery is along the 17th Street Canal, which badly flooded New Orleans' Lake View and Mid City neighborhoods. The Corps had eyewitness reports of water topping the levee there, but Walter Baumy, chief of engineering for the New Orleans district, said the break could have occurred from water pushing through the bottom of the levee, rendering the flood wall unstable.

Bringing just the area of New Orleans along the Lake Pontchartrain shoreline up to Category 4 or 5 protection would cost $2.5 billion to $3 billion, according to the Corps.

If the Corps gets approval to build higher levees, engineers could in some cases build on top of what is already there. In other cases, the Corps might choose to dig up some of the current work and rebuild using fabric reinforcements that would allow levees to climb higher without taking up more room.

"We would look at it from an economic and engineering standpoint — does it make sense to degrade the levee in some places?" Baumy said. "There may be areas you would take that route, but that's for another day. In eight to nine months you cannot build Category 5 protection. You're talking years."

[TexasStooge]

If those people should've worked on the levees in the first place and not screw around, they wouldn't be in the kind of mess they're already in.

[O Town]

It seems like a waste of money to re-build the way they where, and then go back and redo what you just fixed. But at the same time I also can see why it has to be done this way. They need to get something done before next season starts. It is a sad situation, but one that must be addressed as soon as possible if they ever want the peole to return with confidence.

[f5]

i don't trust those levees .they said it was design for a CAT 3 than we Find out can't hold a CAT 1 beacuse they weren't built right

[Derek Ortt]

new orleans only received marginal cat 2 conditions

Georges would have destroyed the city had it moves where it was expected

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

So there not going to move the city out of that death trap? When a hurricane over cat3 hits them next alot more will have to die. Look at waveland in think of New orleans if it where of went over it. In building a hundred billion dollar levy's will do nothing. Theres papers showing the freaking city is sinking. What a waste of human life...I used to think we where smarter.

[f5]

New orleans is built on nature's quicksand soon the GOM will reclaim NO forever just like the Atlantic Ocean sallowed up Atlantis

[sunny]

That REALLY scares me. I am afraid to come back here to live.

Here is another story on the levee system I found interesting. I won't mention the name of the construction company involved, but big lawsuits are coming. Word is the "sheets" were not pushed down completely, which caused the soil to shift. Money issues.

From wwltv.com.

New Orleans flooding caused by soil failure in two main levees

01:51 PM CDT on Friday, October 7, 2005

Brett Martel / Associated Press

Engineers said Friday the flooding in New Orleans' upscale Lakeview neighborhood was caused by failure of levee embankments -- not by water topping two of the main floodwalls.

Earlier investigations of the flooding had said high water was a key cause of the flooding at the 17th Street and London Avenue canals. The American Society of Civil Engineers said an independent inspection of the levees this week showed the levees gave way.

"We found no evidence of overtopping the levees," the statement said. "There is, however, evidence that a section of the levee embankment that supported the floodwall moved approximately 35 feet laterally."

The break in the 17th Street Canal, which separates New Orleans from suburban Jefferson Parish, has remained a mystery. Water from lake Pontchartrain blew through an opening in that levee and badly flooded the Lakeview and Mid City neighborhoods.

The engineers said inspectors also found evidence of the dirt levee moving at the London Avenue breach.

"The evidence also indicates that stormwater did not exceed the height of the levees," the statement said.

The engineers said they saw some levees that had been damaged by hurricane and were simply overwhelmed. However, many miles of levees worked as they should, even though the water got over their tops.

The engineers said a comprehensive report would be issued in about a month.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[LAwxrgal]

On the lawsuit front....There's an attorney from my area that has a $50 billion class action lawsuit. His name is Danny Becnel. I'm not sure but I think the lawsuit is against Boh Bros Construction. I'm starting to think he actually MIGHT have a case.

[Lindaloo]

Let's hope this time they get smart when they rebuild the levee. The concrete barriers are crucial when they rebuild. I do not know why they have the concrete in some areas and not others.

[Ixolib]

Let's hope this time they get smart when they rebuild the levee. The concrete barriers are crucial when they rebuild. I do not know why they have the concrete in some areas and not others.

The "richer" the neighborhood, the better the levee. The "poorer" the neighborhood, the opposite applies.

You can bet "Uptown", the "Garden District", and the "French Quarter" will continue to get increased attention...

[Lindaloo]

Amen to that ixolib.

[Lindaloo]

On the flip side, in Destrehan and west of the city the levee system does have the concrete barriers. IMO, if you put that in place everywhere, as it should have been, then the flooding would not have happened.

[Ixolib]

Furthermore, the post was in response to Ixolib's post (and your affirmation) of something that is factually incorrect. If you're going to delete something, delete THAT.

Oops, hope I didn't cause anything I didn't mean to. It's not typical of me to post something that would intentionally inflame someone. It just ain't my style. But if my response did so, please accept my apology.

My response was posted in part because of what the Parish President for St. Bernard said when he compared the breach in his parish with the situation on the lakefront breach. In his words, the levees in the more affluent parts of N.O. are better constructed and, more importantly, built higher, and receive more preventive maintenence. He was concerned that his parish would continue to get the shorter end of the stick. Hence the comparison of neighborhoods in my original post.

[jasons2k]

Oops, hope I didn't cause anything I didn't mean to. It's not typical of me to post something that would intentionally inflame someone. It just ain't my style. But if my response did so, please accept my apology.

My response was posted in part because of what the Parish President for St. Bernard said when he compared the breach in his parish with the situation on the lakefront breach. In his words, the levees in the more affluent parts of N.O. are better constructed and, more importantly, built higher, and receive more preventive maintenence. He was concerned that his parish would continue to get the shorter end of the stick. Hence the comparison of neighborhoods in my original post.

Hey Ixolib, don't sweat it. I didn't take it as a flame at all, I had just posted a response that the Corps wouldn't base their levee plans on the economic status of those in the protected areas; they don't work that way. I get a little touchy when that's implied...just when it was implied by many that FEMA's slow response in NOLA was somehow a socio-economic or racial agenda. That's just not the case, and I apologize to you as well if you if I made you feel like u flamed anyone.

I'll take down my previous posts, they were not directed at you at all. I just feel like my original post was unfairly removed. Take care.