Times-Picayune: Breach closed in 17th Street Canal levee

[brooklynite]

The breach in the 17th Street Canal levee that had put the city of New Orleans underwater was essentially closed early Sunday evening after days of work and the use of “ingenuity to the max,” a top U.S. Corps of Engineers general said.

After the Corps dropped about 700 3,000-pound sandbags into the gap on the Orleans Parish side of the canal, the tops of the sandbags became visible and the breach was all but closed, said Maj. Gen. Don Riley, deputy commanding general and director of civil works of the Corps.

Corps spokesman Mike Rogers said a 20-foot space remained to be sealed by 6 p.m. and “could be closed as we speak.”

...snip...

With the closure of the 17th Street Canal breach, the process of pumping out the water can begin. There is always the danger that the drawing down of the water could weaken intact levees, “but I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” Riley said, because the operation is expected to be slow and take days.

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_09.html#076990

[pursuivant]

1. That would be very good news . . .

if it happened on freakin' MONDAY! The mayor's only been trying to get the breaches filled all week!

[CityDem]

2. No shit

This should have been completed early last week. I guess it was too much for Bush to cancel his month long vacation.

[kbm8795]

3. I heard Rush Limbaugh volunteered to use his big mouth

to be lowered in that breach, then changed his mind when he discovered the local pharmacy had already been looted and there weren't any medications left.

[NYC]

4. 5 weeks, not a month.

[Zynx]

5. I doubt this could have been done while it was flowing

The 17th street breech was *very* large, and was moving very quickly. That amount of water will pick up and carry anything you put in front of it.

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. A Week After Storm, Levee Break Is Fixed

NEW ORLEANS - A week after Hurricane Katrina, engineers plugged the levee break that swamped much of the city and floodwaters began to recede, but along with the good news came the mayor's direst prediction yet: As many as 10,000 dead.

Sheets of metal and repeated helicopter drops of 3,000-pound sandbags along the 17th Street canal leading to Lake Pontchartrain succeeded Monday in plugging a 200-foot-wide gap, and water was being pumped from the canal back into the lake. State officials and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers say once the canal level is drawn down two feet, Pumping Station 6 can begin pumping water out of the bowl-shaped city.

Some parts of the city already showed slipping floodwaters as the repair neared completion, with the low-lying Ninth Ward dropping more than a foot. In downtown New Orleans, some streets were merely wet rather than swamped.

"We're starting to make the kind of progress that I kind of expected earlier," New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said of the work on the break, which opened at the height of the hurricane and flooded 80 percent of the city up to 20 feet deep.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/hurricane_katrina

The is great news for New Orleans. Plus the pumps are start to come on line. At least now they can get the water out of there. Bravo Nagin and Blanco for fighting BushCo and making this happen.

[Endangered Specie]

7. We will see if it holds.

my main concern is that it is under built. Right now the water on both sides is balanced so while it may be standing now it will be put under more stress when water is just on one side.

Also, assuming holds after drainage, who is to say another big/small storm/hurricane wont come by and 'loosen' it up again.

Also, I hope they have looked all over all the levees to make sure the rest of them just wont up and bust.

[rocktivity]

8. Is it safe to pump the water out?

I daresay it's kind of polluted--shouldn't they treat it first?

:headbang:
rocknation

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. Of course it's polluted

but there is nothing else to do but pump it out. Anyway most of the bad pollution is already in the river and the mouth from all the oil tanker and rigs and stuff, so the Gulf is screwed either way.

[LibertyorDeath]

10. Levee Break Plugged a Week After Katrina

By DOUG SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer 43 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - A week after Hurricane Katrina swept through, engineers plugged the levee break that had swamped much of the city and floodwaters began to recede, but along with the good news came the mayor's direst prediction yet: as many as 10,000 dead.
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Crews had put up metal sheets and dropped 3,000-pound sandbags from helicopters onto the 17th Street canal leading to Lake Pontchartrain to plug the 200-foot-wide gap, and water was being pumped from the canal back into the lake.

State officials and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers say once the canal level is drawn down two feet, Pumping Station No. 6 can begin pumping water out of the bowl-shaped city.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/hurricane_katrina

[NMDemDist2]

11. good, I saw the pics yesterday and I could see they were making

progress

[Blue_Roses]

12. about damn time

:applause:

[LeftHander]

13. Water logged levees...

SNIP:

There is always the danger that the drawing down of the water could weaken intact levees, “but I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” Riley said, because the operation is expected to be slow and take days.

...

Lets not forget that the landside of these concrete waterside levees are waterlogged and will probably not withstand the pressure and will breech again.