Good website with graphics of projected path of Katrina; comments on levee

[lindisfarne]

http://www.markarkleiman.com/archives/katrina_/2005/09/the_levee_failure_was_predictable_and_predicted.php

[xray s]

1. oh...you may have answered my other thread abou tthe levees

I am curious how the levees split apart...

Mark Schleifstein, the environment writer for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, e-mailed me this morning: "For days in advance of this storm, everyone from the mayor of New Orleans to the governor to Max Mayfield gave a clear message: a Category 4 hurricane will overtop the levees. . . .

"Our series and the latest NWS software used by emergency planners throughout New Orleans indicate that even some Category 2 storms could put water over the levees in eastern New Orleans."

I'm also told by another source that the two levees that failed were first overtopped -- then they eroded from the interior and collapsed. Once water starts spilling over the top of a levee its structural integrity can no longer be guaranteed, apparently -- and the Corps of Engineers was aware of that possibility.

[SheilaT]

2. Before Katrina hit

the National Weather Service issued a VERY strong warning (which was also posted here on DU) which said the approaching storm would destroy wood frame buildings, blow out windows of high rises, cause collapse of masonry buildings, and so on and so forth. Basically it described EXACTLY what happened.

The head of the NWS briefed Mike Brown and Michael Chertoff before the storm hit. He called the President of St. Bernard Parish about the extreme danger of the coming hurricane on Saturday. This I got from All Things Considered this afternoon.

As I was watching TV coverage on Sunday evening it almost looked as if Katrina had a literal mind of her own and was carefully aiming directly at New Orleans. It was beyond creepy.