The new New Orleans

Levee update

As one commentor requested, here is the update on the levees:

Nola.com reports today that, "Four sections of metal sheet pilings pulled Tuesday morning from both sides of the breach in the 17th Street Canal levee wall were all found to be more than 23 feet, 6 inches long, exactly as called for in design documents, Army Corps of Engineers officials said."

This is not what many expected.

"The depth of the pilings, which support floodwalls on the canal, had been questioned by independent engineers, who noted that sonar soundings taken elsewhere on the levees showed them going only about 10 feet below sea level. The engineers also had questioned whether even 17 feet below sea level would be deep enough to stop seepage below the canal bottom, which is blamed for causing the collapse of some walls."

So, they met standards. Great. But they still didn't work. Why?

"The combination metal and concrete wall was still not strong enough to withstand the force of storm surge entering the canal during Katrina, said University of California at Berkeley civil engineering professor Raymond Seed, one of several independent engineers investigating the levee breaks."

What will be done in the future to make sure this levee failure never happens again?

In a different article, nola.com reports that State Senator Walter Boasso made a first attempt by combining all levee boards into one regional board overseeing all levees. However, that bill was killed during the Katrina special session after too many amendments weakened the legislation.

Now, he and other Senators are promising another special session for the state Senate (no later than January) where more Katrina response issues can be handled. Thank goodness.

Additionally, a citizen watchdog group has been started by Debbie Settoon.

As president of the new group, she said their purpose was to make certain that local, state, and federal leaders take the right steps to protect local residents from natural and manmade disasters in the future. "We want to do whatever it takes to make Jefferson Parish safer," she said.

I sincerely hope that government is held to the highest of standards when dealing with the levees. If a Katrina-like hurricane hit again and New Orleans flooded again, I can't begin to imagine the amount of criticism the state would receive. People already see us as corrupt and some tried to criticize New Orleans residents for living there in the first place. It is up to the government to make sure that they are not stupid for returning. This time we have to use the federal aid perfectly and make sure we have the strongest of levees.

New Orleans is struggling to recover this time and I doubt we could do it twice.

posted by Jessie Tucker @ 12/13/2005