The levees that we trusted, broke.
No resident here ever dreamt that they would break; we innocently thought that the Army Corps of Engineers had done their job adequately. The 17th St. canal levee had just been replaced @ 10 years ago. Katrina came ashore near the small town of Pass Christian, MS, pretty much wiping it off the map. We experienced Category 3 winds and Category 5 storm surge, but not a direct hit. The levees protecting much of the city were never over-topped. They didn't get a chance to hold the amount of water they were designed to accommodate; the levees failed from the bottom.
The levee protecting the lower Ninth ward at the Industrial Canal was slammed by a barge which contributed to the levee failure there and subsquent drowning of an entire New Orleans neighborhood.
Several weeks prior to the storm, a homeowner, whose land abutted the 17th St. canal in the Lakeview area, called the Sewage and Water Board because they noticed that water was seeping into their yard from the levee. They thought it might be a broken pipe. The Sewage and Water Board filed the complaint away; the Levee Board was never notified. The Sewage and Water Board had also dredged that side of the 17th St. canal, which separates the city of New Orleans from the suburbia known as Metairie, 2 years before the storm. They dredged to deepen the canal, so that it would accomodate more rainwater runoff during severe rainfalls. Unfortunately, the dredging may have also weakened the levee wall, which only failed on the Orleans parish side, not into Metairie.
As hearings were held post-Katrina, it was revealed that neither the Levee Board nor the Army Corps ever inspected the levees; they relied on the untrained guys who mowed the grass to let them know if anything seemed amiss. The Corps and Levee Board met once a year, ostensibly to take care of business, but they revealed under oath that their meetings basically were about lunch at a nice restaurant.
Incredibly, the levees which were funded in the 1960's, were still unfinished. During Congressional hearings, both Democratic and Republican senators grilled Carl Strock, then Corps leader, about why the levees were never completed. He replied that the system never had enough money; yet he couldn't come up with a good reason why the Army Corps had never asked for the money to finish.
Every year, pre Katrina, President Bush cut our funding for flood protection, as if it was just more pork barrel.
It was always front page news here and I always noticed. It always turned my stomach.
Every summer, on the front page of The Times-Picayune, there was a diagram of how deep the flood water would be if a hurricane hit New Orleans in the worst possible scenario- coming up the Mississippi River, pushing the Gulf into the city. Every summer, for at least the past 10 years the diagram was the same; every structure in the city, high ground included, would be covered by upwards of 20 ft. of water.
After the storm, I actually heard public officials say that they had no idea that this would happen. A mock drill called Hurricane Pam had been staged 2 months earlier, correctly predicting EVERYTHING that was to unfold during Katrina.
Ironically, we have an OEM office, a bureaucratic part of our government called the Office of Emergency Preparedness.
What, exactly, do they do?
Showing posts with label levee system. Show all posts
Showing posts with label levee system. Show all posts
Monday, September 24, 2007
"Why New Orleans Needs Saving" by Newt Gingrich for Time Magazine, March 2006
Why New Orleans Needs Saving;
the City's Natural Vulnerability Is Also Its Greatest Strength
Time Magazine March 6 2006
Newt Gingrich John Barry
Shortly after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert wondered aloud whether the Federal Government should help rebuild a city much of which lies below sea level. The most tough-minded answer to that question demonstrates that rebuilding and protecting New Orleans is in the national interest. Reason: The very same geological forces that created that port are what make it vulnerable to Category 5 hurricanes and also what make it indispensable.
One such force is the Mississippi River. Once, the Gulf of Mexico extended north to Cape Girardeau, Mo., but the river gradually deposited enough sediment into a receding sea to create tens of thousands of square miles of land stretching south to the present mouth of the river. Long after New Orleans was first settled, the entire region remained above sea level and safe from hurricanes. Engineers prevented river floods by building levees and kept shipping channels open by constructing jetties two miles out into the ocean so that the river dropped its sediment into deep water. Before the jetties were built, 100 ships at a time often waited days for deep enough water to pass over sandbars blocking the Mississippi's mouth. The levees and jetties stopped sediment from feeding the deltas; the land sank, and coastal Louisiana shrank. Similarly, other great ports on deltaic rivers, like Rotterdam, are also below sea level; the airport serving Amsterdam is 20 ft. below sea level, lower than any part of New Orleans.
If engineering the Mississippi made New Orleans vulnerable, it also created enormous value. New Orleans is the busiest port in the U.S.; 20% of all U.S. exports, and 60% of our grain exports, pass through it. Offshore Louisiana oil and gas wells supply 20% of domestic oil production. But to service that industry, canals and pipelines were dug through the land, greatly accelerating the washing away of coastal Louisiana. The state's land loss now totals 1,900 sq. mi. That land once protected the entire region from hurricanes by acting as a sponge to soak up storm surges. If nothing is done, in the foreseeable future an additional 700 sq. mi. will disappear, putting at risk port facilities and all the energy-producing infrastructure in the Gulf.
There is no debate about the reality of that land loss and its impact. On that the energy industry and environmentalists agree. There is also no doubt about the solution. Chip Groat, a former director of the U.S. Geological Survey, says, "This land loss can be managed, and New Orleans can be protected, even with projected sea-level rise." Category 5 hurricane protection for the region, including coastal restoration, storm-surge barriers and improved levees, would cost about $40 billion--over 30 years. Compare that with the cost to the economy of less international competitiveness (the result of increased freight charges stemming from loss of the efficiencies of the port of New Orleans), higher energy prices and more vulnerable energy supplies. Compare that with the cost of rebuilding the energy and port infrastructure elsewhere. Compare that with the fact that in the past two years, we have spent more to rebuild Iraq's wetlands than Louisiana's. National interest requires this restoration. Our energy needs alone require it. Yet the White House proposes spending only $100 million for coastal restoration.
Washington also has a moral burden. It was the Federal Government's responsibility to build levees that worked, and its failure to do so ultimately led to New Orleans' being flooded. The White House recognized that responsibility when it proposed an additional $4.2 billion for housing in New Orleans, but the first priority remains flood control. Without it, individuals will hesitate to rebuild, and lenders will decline to invest.
How should flood control be paid for? States get 50% of the tax revenues paid to the Federal Government from oil and gas produced on federally owned land. States justify that by arguing that the energy production puts strains on their infrastructure and environment. Louisiana gets no share of the tax revenue from the oil and gas production on the outer continental shelf. Yet that production puts an infinitely greater burden on it than energy production from other federal territory puts on any other state. If we treat Louisiana the same as other states and give it the same share of tax revenue that other states receive, it will need no other help from the government to protect itself. Every day's delay makes it harder to rebuild the city. It is time to act. It is well past time.
the City's Natural Vulnerability Is Also Its Greatest Strength
Time Magazine March 6 2006
Newt Gingrich John Barry
Shortly after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert wondered aloud whether the Federal Government should help rebuild a city much of which lies below sea level. The most tough-minded answer to that question demonstrates that rebuilding and protecting New Orleans is in the national interest. Reason: The very same geological forces that created that port are what make it vulnerable to Category 5 hurricanes and also what make it indispensable.
One such force is the Mississippi River. Once, the Gulf of Mexico extended north to Cape Girardeau, Mo., but the river gradually deposited enough sediment into a receding sea to create tens of thousands of square miles of land stretching south to the present mouth of the river. Long after New Orleans was first settled, the entire region remained above sea level and safe from hurricanes. Engineers prevented river floods by building levees and kept shipping channels open by constructing jetties two miles out into the ocean so that the river dropped its sediment into deep water. Before the jetties were built, 100 ships at a time often waited days for deep enough water to pass over sandbars blocking the Mississippi's mouth. The levees and jetties stopped sediment from feeding the deltas; the land sank, and coastal Louisiana shrank. Similarly, other great ports on deltaic rivers, like Rotterdam, are also below sea level; the airport serving Amsterdam is 20 ft. below sea level, lower than any part of New Orleans.
If engineering the Mississippi made New Orleans vulnerable, it also created enormous value. New Orleans is the busiest port in the U.S.; 20% of all U.S. exports, and 60% of our grain exports, pass through it. Offshore Louisiana oil and gas wells supply 20% of domestic oil production. But to service that industry, canals and pipelines were dug through the land, greatly accelerating the washing away of coastal Louisiana. The state's land loss now totals 1,900 sq. mi. That land once protected the entire region from hurricanes by acting as a sponge to soak up storm surges. If nothing is done, in the foreseeable future an additional 700 sq. mi. will disappear, putting at risk port facilities and all the energy-producing infrastructure in the Gulf.
There is no debate about the reality of that land loss and its impact. On that the energy industry and environmentalists agree. There is also no doubt about the solution. Chip Groat, a former director of the U.S. Geological Survey, says, "This land loss can be managed, and New Orleans can be protected, even with projected sea-level rise." Category 5 hurricane protection for the region, including coastal restoration, storm-surge barriers and improved levees, would cost about $40 billion--over 30 years. Compare that with the cost to the economy of less international competitiveness (the result of increased freight charges stemming from loss of the efficiencies of the port of New Orleans), higher energy prices and more vulnerable energy supplies. Compare that with the cost of rebuilding the energy and port infrastructure elsewhere. Compare that with the fact that in the past two years, we have spent more to rebuild Iraq's wetlands than Louisiana's. National interest requires this restoration. Our energy needs alone require it. Yet the White House proposes spending only $100 million for coastal restoration.
Washington also has a moral burden. It was the Federal Government's responsibility to build levees that worked, and its failure to do so ultimately led to New Orleans' being flooded. The White House recognized that responsibility when it proposed an additional $4.2 billion for housing in New Orleans, but the first priority remains flood control. Without it, individuals will hesitate to rebuild, and lenders will decline to invest.
How should flood control be paid for? States get 50% of the tax revenues paid to the Federal Government from oil and gas produced on federally owned land. States justify that by arguing that the energy production puts strains on their infrastructure and environment. Louisiana gets no share of the tax revenue from the oil and gas production on the outer continental shelf. Yet that production puts an infinitely greater burden on it than energy production from other federal territory puts on any other state. If we treat Louisiana the same as other states and give it the same share of tax revenue that other states receive, it will need no other help from the government to protect itself. Every day's delay makes it harder to rebuild the city. It is time to act. It is well past time.
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