MAJOR Break in 17th Street Canal Levee

[tocqueville]

Break in 17th Street Canal Levee is now 200 feet wide and slowly flooding the City of New Orleans. Huge sand bags are being airlifted to try to stem the rush of water in that area. The expectations are that the water will not stop until it reaches lake level.

http://www.wwltv.com/

[Roland99]

1. They've been estimating 200' for a while. I don't think they know for sure

[MostlyLurks]

9. 200' what?

A 200' breach? Damn.

How many feet higher than NOLA is the Lake Ponchartrain water level? What are the projections for the depth at which NOLA and the lake will have same water level?

Mostly

[Roland99]

11. Maybe this will help

[jean]

2. can't the military airlift something huge to put into place in that breech

I suppose they're concerned about the integrity of the rest of the levee, if the adjacent structure of the levee is also failing ... but I imagine airlifting and setting into place a small ship or anything of the right size to plug it up

[MadHound]

4. The levee is probably soaked through, and quite unstable

Setting a large amount of weight on it would probably cause what is left standing to give way. Sand bags weigh less, and can be pretty effective in the short term(1-2 weeks) for holding back water.

They're doing this has a short term fix in order to prevent a full scale flood. Once the levee has dried out enough to hold the weight of larger earth moving machines, then they will come in and fix it for real.

[Webster Green]

5. They could, but it's a long flight from Iraq...

Plenty of sand there, but getting it here in time is a challenge.

[intheflow]

7. I'm not a ship-as-plug would hold.

If the levy walls are crumbling, that kind of plug would do nothing to stop the eroding levy walls. I guess sand bags are the way to go, though it seems as useless as using a home fire extinguisher on a forest fire.

[wtmusic]

3. 3,000 lb sandbags?

:wow:

[rodeodance]

6. well, the streets around the Dome are aready flooded.

[PA Democrat]

8. MSNBC reported that water level in NO was still rising as of 1:00 p.m. EST

due to levee breaks. They said that areas that were relatively dry as of last night are now under water up to roof level.

Edited for punctuation.

[madrchsod]

10. dropping sandbags will take to long

although the force of the water is less than the mississippi levee breaks or the flooding of the quad cities in the 60`s it would still take heavy equiment to do any good. the other factor is that during the for mentioned cases there were dry access roads and staging areas stage materials and workers. none of these are in place in no. as another poster stated the rest of the levee is just as bad..plugging up one hole and the water will find another way.