New Orleans Exhales, Then Gasps Again

Gustav, as far as New Orleans was concerned, was not "the mother of all storms," in the latest immortal words of Mayor Ray Nagin, and as my friends and neighbors (the ones who didn't stay) make their way back into town, they're greeted today by another shoe dropping: the Times Picayune reports that the American Society of Civil Engineers has finally gotten around to critiquing the Army Corps' massive mea kinda culpa regarding the Katrina flooding.

I say "finally" because the Army Corps' report, still incomplete, was first released in June 2006. But, hey, what's the big urgency?

Well, according to the ASCE response, plenty.

For instance, the civil engineers said the corps did not go far enough in addressing the inadequate design of floodwalls along the 17th Street and London Avenue canals. The corps had blamed the failure of those floodwalls partly on the "complex and challenging" geological conditions in which they were built.

"While a massive hurricane does create a 'complex and challenging environment,' engineers routinely are expected to design for such conditions," they said, and such an environment "in no way mitigates the inadequacy of the design."

The engineers also criticized the report for soft-pedaling the role of surge overtopping and the use of erosion-prone fill from nearby swamps in the failure of earthen levees.

And while the report concludes the levees did not perform as a system, "it does not speak to the fact that it was never designed or managed as a system."

But wait, there's more...

"Protecting hundreds of thousands of people living in urban areas that are at or below sea level such as New Orleans" should be given more emphasis than protecting smaller towns or open farmland, they wrote.

The engineers also were disappointed the report did not mention "the role and importance of external peer review in future projects."

The report's risk analysis results "provide a sobering reminder of the potential impacts of an enormous hurricane on the New Orleans area, and of the hazards posed to residents," the engineers said.

But the risks outlined for people and property behind levees in New Orleans should be placed in a larger context, such as existing international standards for dams, which are much more stringent.

Dams normally protect open land, often sparsely settled. Levees protect major population centers. Who decides that, in this country, the safety factor for the former (following international standards) is "much more stringent" than for the latter?

A couple of very prominent Senators currently running for president might want to consider these matters when they arrive in Oxford, Mississippi in three weeks for their first debate....

Comments

[luziannagirl]

Well, Harry, given:

a) the recent exposure of FEMA's continued ineptitude demonstrated by last wk's poor Hurricane Gustav performance in devastated Baton Rouge and south-central Louisiana

b) the Army Corps of Engineers' continued stumbles and bumbles over New Orleans levees,

c) widespread failure of federally supported & regulated US public schools, most notably the New Orleans school system, possibly worst in the nation for many yrs and now the object of a pilot voucher system program,

I predict the way is being quickly paved for the dissolution, burial, and privatization of the TAX-SUPPORTED public services currently provided by FEMA, Army Corps of Engineers, and public schools.

And don't get me started on privatization of the military. I strongly suspect some of those big black-out windowed black Humvees I've never before noticed, now rumbling down my city streets are Blackwater mercenary storm troops.

If McCain/Palin and/or an effective Republican-voting Congressional majority are elected, look for these predictions to come to pass.

[luziannagirl]

Gustav left over a million Louisianians without power . Hundreds of thousands of Louisianians are still without power, as is about 30-40% of Baton Rouge , a week after the storm. Pierre Part and Bayou Sorrel are not scheduled to get theirs back for four to six weeks, and coastal communities of Houma and Thibodeaux were even harder hit . America's major petrochemical industrial corridor (from Baton Rouge to New Orleans along the MS River) lost power for nearly a week, first time in history. We're all busy patching roof holes and re-stocking survival supplies in prep for Hurricane Ike, churning over Cuba as I type this.

It took FEMA three or four days just to locate their supply of blue roof tarps, which compounds the damage as rain ruins what the winds and falling trees didn't. And they are still short on those.

Thank goodness for relatives, neighbors, strangers and our own resourcefulness and preparedness. "Portable Electric Generator" and "Bigger Chainsaw" are now top of our growing survival supply list. We are considering getting a ham shortwave radio, too.

Just wait, Inland America. Your time is coming. Better subscribe to Mother Earth news now and learn to cook on a propane camp stove because your tax money ain't going to protect you---it's getting sucked down "spider holes" in Iraq and ending up in private bank accounts in Switzerland and Singapore.

[HansBrinker]

Dutch draw up drastic measures to defend coast against rising seas
The Associated Press
9-3-2008

The Netherlands needs a massive new building program to strengthen the low-lying country's water defenses against the anticipated effects of global warming for the next 190 years, an important panel advised Wednesday.

The plan by the Delta Commission includes more than ‚¬100 billion, or $144 billion, in new spending through the year 2100 to take measures such as broadening coastal dunes and strengthening sea and river dikes. It is expected to be the central reference point for policymakers for decades to come..

(Prime Minister). Balkenende promised to immediately begin drafting its recommendations into law.

The commission said the country must plan for a rise in the North Sea by as much as 4.25 feet (..) by 2100, and 6.5-13 feet by 2200.

(...)

The commission was created in September 2007, after the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina prompted reflection and preparations.
(...)

Specific recommendations include improving dikes' strength "by a factor of 10"; using offshore sand supplementation to broaden dunes that guard much of the country's central coast line; strengthening sea dikes in the far north and south; and increasing the ability to absorb water arriving from the Rhine and Meuse/Maas rivers by more than 10 percent.

(...)

[elcojonu]

Message to Barack:
Get the Dutch involved in securing New Orleans once and for all after you win this thing.
Look what they've done for Venice, Italy.

[princessofnowt]

as azureblue says below:
The city of New Orleans gave the Netherlands plans for the New Orleans pumps way back when and some of these pumps are still in use today. After Katrina, the grateful Dutch offered to help New Orleans- manpower, expertise, equipment, anything, but Bush told them to go away....

Why?

Who are the contractors there?
What did we pay them to build paper levees?
http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl042408tpleveepaper.98095b74.html

Easy enough to do substandard work, know that it will never be discovered, because you have haarp to aim hurricanes at NO. (and you control the media)

above link shows paper made levees. ever see that on national news?

[mezz1962]

Lets see lets spend Billions of dollars trying to protect a city that is already 6 feet below sea level and in 20 years will be 20 feet below sea level instead of letting nature take it course and build a brand new New Orleans further inland where it can start over again

[Harry Shearer - Huffpost Blogger]

FYI--More than half of New Orleans is at or above sea level. Even now, according to the latest study by Tulane University. Can we stay now?

[CSE]

Sure. But stay in those areas at or above mean high tide and develop buildings with finished habitable first floor elevations above 100 year flood elevations and pinned into firm soil with piles.

"As New Orleans begins to rebuild, it should learn the lessons from Amsterdam: Only build above sea level, and on pilings if the soil is soft; build redundant dikes and levees, because if something can fail it most likely will if given enough time. (This should be paid for by those who choose to live there and not by those who choose to live elsewhere.)" [1]

[1] - http://ff.org/centers/csspp/library/co2weekly/20060322/20060322_01.html

[fishsandwichesr2good]

I smell games with numbers. You say half of the city is AT or above sea level. Of the "half", what percent is AT sea level (which might just as well be below sea level given the liberal conclusion that oceans are on the rise).

[azureblue]

Here's another lying republican- OK what do you have to say about Florida? They get hit by hurricanes every year and you don't say squat about it. What's the difference? Oh yeah- Florida is Republican, and you are a Republican...

[HoppinHill]

New Orleans' vulnerability to flooding due is primarily and overwhelmingly to 50 years of engineering design and construction flaws by the agency responsible for the flood protection - the US Army Corps of Engineers.

In January 2008, federal judge Stanwood Duval said, "Millions of dollars were squandered in building a levee system which was known to be inadequate by the corps"s own calculations."

The corps' negligence is is documented and not disputed. You can read about here:
http://levees.org/Dismissal.pdf

[princessofnowt]

Here is an excerpt from HoppinHill link http://levees.org/Dismissal.pdf- which does appear to document years of appalling negligence:(this starts at page 6)

The tortured tale of its construction is among the most convoluted stories told. To outline
every twist and turn and decision made in the building of the specific levees and floodwalls
involved which are the subject of this Master Complaint would require more space and time
than is appropriate for this opinion. Nonetheless, an overview is necessary to provide factual
support for the Court's decision concerning the subject motion. Tangentially, it demonstrates
how this catastrophic failure of the Corps to fulfill its mission occurred.

B. 1966-1975 Continued Planning, Failure to Incorporate New Data in
Plans, Funding Issues, and NEPA Lawsuit
In August of 1966 the Corps reviewed its elevations of the levees involved as a result of
the lessons learned with Hurricane Betsy, and by September of 1968, it determined that the
design elevations of all project structures were to be raised by 1 to 2 feet. This elevation
remained the status quo, despite new models, new information concerning subsidence and the like thereafter. The Corps maintained that it would be adequate and protect against the SPH upto the time of Hurricane Katrina.

Had to cut it off to fit here. Worth reading to see failure after failure to address problem.
What is up with that? Knowing that what they were doing would fail?

[azureblue]

Let's see lets see we have already spent billions rebuilding a state that is hit every single year by hurricanes- the Republican state of Florida, but you don't say a thing about that.

Why? Tell us..

[whirly]

Harry,
I know that you have been very passionate about the plight of New Orleans, but as someone who just had internet service restored and lived w/o power for four days (we were lucky), and some people are having to wait for an estimated three weeks for power to be restored in the LA heat, I think you do a great disservice to the people down I-10 from NO by saying that Gustav wasn't the "mother of all storms". Baton Rouge, which is now the most populated city in the state, was completely crippled by this storm, and everyone took off and forgot about it just because the levees held. NO isn't the only city in the state!!! Go to Entergy's website to see the damage done to the transmitters. Also, there were only two PODs for the entire city after the storm passed! That's two PODS for approximatedly half a million people, and there were no alternatives for food, water, gas and ice, because no one had any power. I hope that you revise your passion to include the plight of Baton Rouge and the other cities outside of NO that have been devastated. Especially when we are now biting our nails as we wait to see what Ike is going to do. These storms should be a wake up call to everyone, especially those along the Gulf Coast that disaster planning and recovery need to be updated and should never be put on the back burner.

[eveningprim]

people also really need to focus on re-building the wetlands/marshlands that used to buffer louisiana from storms! land the size of the state of delaware used to sit between louisiana and the open gulf- now, no more. it can be fixed and has to be fixed or the levee's will never be big enough.

[rini]

Yup.

[HoppinHill]

Absolutely correct, but safe levees is also important. Did you know that 43% of the American population lives in counties protected by levees? Safe levees is not strictly a New Orleans, nor a coastal issue.

Link to source on how 43% of Americans live in areas protected by levees
http://www.hazardscaucus.org/briefings/levees_briefing0608.html

[backhandpath]

Agreed. And also, all the wetlands/marshland rebuilding sediment is trapped up stream, even as far as the Dakotas, by all the Midwest "flood'control" (HA!) structures built by, you guessed it, our Exquixotic Corps.
John Barry puts a particular focus on this in his lectures. He views the MS flood river system as stretching form the NE to the Rockies and all of That sediment is the stuff of our hurricane absorbing/deflecting wetlands.

It would seem obvious from the abject failure of this Midwest "Flood Control" System this past summer and in 1993 that we need a complete and absolute overhaul and realignment of our National Civil Engineering.

That means the complete reordering, and if necessary replacement, of the Corps of Engineers' Flood Control Mandate. They have proven themselves Not Up To The Job.

The way to do that is guaranteed by the 8/29 Legislation before Congress right now.
http://www.washingtonwatch.com/bills/show/110_SN_2826.html
http://www.levees.org/commission

Yeah, the Dutch have beautiful flood control structures. And the English bright shiny pumps. While we in America have cruddy looking badly repaired concrete walls that are actually too short and too late to patch a system that was deliberately built wrong or stupidly left to chance.
Go figure.
Got any real flood control?
Go Fish
Thank you,
Editilla~New Orleans Ladder

[rini]

For some unfathomable reason,

the Repubs do not believe in infrastructure. In the past eight years we have had a nationwide moratorium on repairing and upkeep of any federal roads or bridges.

I hate to sound partisan, but, the only reason we have some highways and roads that are in decent shape is because of local repairs and the Clinton administration in the nineties.

So it comes as no surprise that the levees were in trouble and that there are continued problems. New Orleans, on many levels, is the canary in the coal mine.

[princessofnowt]

they are making the case for privatization.

and then- when we have paid all there is to private companies (owned by guess who?)
then- they go belly up and get taken over again ("rescued") like fannie and freddie and ? and ?

what a scam.

[Chbronze]

I guess someboby should tell the people repaving every freeway in Atlanta, and rebuilding at least three bridge in the process that there is a moratorium. Of course you sound partisan with comments as such.

[mcbrid35]

The actual letter can be found here:

http://www.asce.org/files/pdf/erp.pdf

[backhandpath]

Dog, mcbrid35! You're quicker than a Catahoula in a pig sty!
Here's a link for your link, (even if mine was easier to find:)
http://www.lasce.org/home.aspx#asce501
This is as much for everyone to know that the ASCE is seeking to form a nonprofit Political Action Committee to further influence legislation governing the Corps, to wit: the 8/29 Investigation before Congress.
PACs as we all know are basically Money Machines to pool resources and solicit more money for "Political" gain. What that has to do with engineering safe flood control structures is anyone's guess, but it is a strong movement among the ASCE.
The ASCE and the CORPS are so in'bedded with each other that it has gotten very difficult to distinguish the public and private, the tax-paid and the tax-exempt.
This is why I call them ASCECORPS.
We should not allow ASCECORPS to do this PAC with Non'Profit Status.
Thank you,
Editilla~New Orleans Ladder

[gemcando06]

May I pretend? Pretend the Army Corps can build a defense against the storms that not only safeguards New Orleans but all of the Delta land. They probably can do it.
Many cities in Europe are below sea level, or prone to storm surges.They have built defenses. In Japan, many cities have storm surge doors to close and guard their cities.
Have we become so cynical and crude as to risk land and lives every year? When did this happen?

[JBS]

Started with Reaganomics ... although Nixon would have done it if he could.

[Mustang Sally]

Broken record - 2008 version

[Krikkit]

Harry, I'm just glad at this point that the French Quarter was spared last time. Of course it was build above sea level before the levees and dams eroded all the barrier islands and before global warming intensified any storms. Even the French Quarter won't be spared in future storms unless some of the fury of the river can be drained around the city so the islands can regrow, and some of the co2 removed from the atmosphere. Both of those are such huge tasks, and our budget is so strapped now that even the highway system isn't being funded anymore. The hard truth is that if New Orleans keeps getting hit it may have to be sacrificed somewhere down the road.

[MarkfromOxford]

They might also want to gasp a little because the current projected route of Hurricane Ike is to swing through the Florida straits, with the eye missing both Florida and Cuba, and for it to head straight to New Orleans, except this time from the southeast heading northwest (rather than south heading north) straight into the city and up the Mississippi. On current projections it should get there about September 15-16. They might have to find a new location for that Presidential debate.

[roadtripkid]

I still do not understand why the electric grid is not put underground. I know it would be very costly, but once underground the power would stay on, weather or wind would have no effect.

[backhandpath]

Here is why:
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Louisiana/New_Orleans/_Texts/1915_Hurricane*.html

[backhandpath]

Please copy entire link (that didn't highlight completely) into your browser to get to the specific page...although that Highlighted Part does go to the home page of this truly wonderful history site.