Experts say Louisiana levees should have held (Reuters)

[shance]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hurricane experts said Hurricane Katrina's storm surges were smaller than authorities have suggested and that poor design, faulty construction or a combination of the two were to blame for the failure of New Orleans' flood-protection system, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

Scientists and engineers at Louisiana State University's Hurricane Center -- with the help of computer models and visual evidence -- concluded the levee system should have been sufficient to keep most of the city dry.

They also said Katrina's storm surges did not come close to going over the floodwalls, contradicting statements from the Army Corps of Engineers, which has said the surges sent water from Lake Pontchartrain over the top of the concrete walls.

"This should not have been a big deal for these floodwalls," said oceanographer G. Paul Kemp, a hurricane expert who runs LSU's Natural Systems Modeling Laboratory. "It should have been a modest challenge. There's no way this should have exceeded the capacity."

Ivor van Heerden, the Hurricane Center's deputy director, said the real scandal of Katrina is the "catastrophic structural failure" of barriers that should have handled the hurricane with relative ease.

"We are absolutely convinced that those floodwalls were never overtopped," the newspaper quoted van Heerden saying.

(more)

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?typ...

[Carolab]

1. Ruh roh. What's that smell? P.S. Link not working. n/t

[tk2kewl]

2. Are they implying foul play?

:tinfoilhat: Link says "No Valid Story Entered"

[shance]

6. I think they are implying the story we are getting is not valid, however

I don't get they are implying foul play, although they cannot confirm what caused the problem. It seems they are going with the theory it could be erosion from the soil under the flood walls?

Thats what I gathered.

[preciousdove]

3. Eyewitnesse says loose barge hit side of levee and took it out...

earlier DU link to blog. Said that water had not topped.

[tk2kewl]

7. I saw some photos that seemed to back that claim...

but that was only the Canal St breach.

[shance]

4. Try this link.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-09-21T050924Z_01_SCH117391_RTRUKOC_0_US-KATRINA-LEVEES.xml

[walkon]

5. O.K.

Does this mean authorities panicked and did purposely blow the levees to save the "good parts" of town? Does the Army Corps of Engineers know anything about what they are doing? Are the people running it competent?

I know at some point after the storm someone reported that a levee had been blown on purpose to "help with drainage". Anybody else remember hearing this?

[stopbush]

8. None of the levees failed.

This was made clear in reports over the past weeks. Levees are earthen structures. They held.

What actually failed were concrete floodwalls. As I heard it explained, they use these to go through densely populated neighborhoods as levees require a large setback. You can't fit a levee in there so you build a concrete floodwall. It was the more-narrowly constructed floodwalls that gave way.

The speculation I heard on TV was that inferior materials may have been used in certain areas of the floodwall construction, ie: where they broke. The thinking is that if the design was at fault, there would have been many more failures. The fact that the points of failure were isolated leads to the conclusion that the materials used in those spots were below spec.

Most reports are erroneously using the term "levee" in a generic way, sort of like how they use the word "president" to describe bush, rather than "fucking bumbling imbecile."

Am I wrong on this?

[Carolab]

9. Since the "breaks" occurred where there was work being done.

I think it's safe to assume someone messed up big time (maybe by design?) on the specs. Seems the Army Corps of Engineers and whoever they contracted to do the work have some explaining to do.