Posted on 08/30/2005 4:35:54 PM PDT by Flavius
New Orleans is apt to stay awash for days under oily, filthy water infested with mosquitoes, even if failed levees can be fixed quickly, according to experts assessing the flooding left by Hurricane Katrina. ADVERTISEMENT
An initial sense of relief that the city escaped the storm's worst dissolved Tuesday, as an estimated 80 percent of the 180-square-mile city gradually turned into an urban swamp.
"While everyone knew this could happen, I don't think anyone was really prepared for it," said oceanographer Paul Kemp, at Louisiana State University's Hurricane Center. "There are some disasters beyond comprehension, and I think this is one of them."
Murky water, laced with junk and pollutants, coursed through the city, including many downtown streets. Residents and rescuers came across floating bodies, though the city's death toll was still unknown late Tuesday.
Flooding specialists predicted that conditions could worsen as authorities focused first on saving people trapped in buildings.
Some flood-control pumps were broken, choked by excess water or storm debris. Others were lacking power needed to run. Roofs were reported collapsed on at least two major pumping stations. Without the pumps, much of the flood water will have nowhere to drain in this city cradled within a bowl, at an average of six feet below sea level.
In a frustrating catch-22, it will be hard to fix the pumps and restore their power while they are under water, but it's hard to drain the water without the pumps, the flood experts warned.
"It's going to be days before they get all that water out," said marine scientist Ivor van Heerden, also of LSU, who developed flooding models for the city. He was out with a boat inspecting water levels Tuesday.
When the hurricane's eye veered away from the city Monday morning, the fiercest winds and storm surge bashed into the coast east of New Orleans. Though some neighborhoods flooded, most of the city was spared severe flooding in the immediate aftermath. By early Tuesday, however, waters were creeping into large parts of the mostly evacuated city, which is normally home to about 484,000 people.
This flood water apparently came from at least two levee breaks — at the Industrial Canal and the 17th Street Canal, according to the LSU specialists.
Helicopters were dumping 3,000-pound sandbags onto the levees, beginning the task of trying to plug them.
The experts warned of potential dangers ahead. Louisiana's frequent summer rains — or even another hurricane — could add to flooding in coming days or weeks, they said. The sitting water could collect more contaminants from homes and industries, and mosquitoes could amplify the danger of disease.
"Because it doesn't drain, there's a chance for things to concentrate," said Marc Levitan, another flooding expert at LSU.
If the tropical storm dumps rain along the Mississippi while it travels north, the flooding may continue longer. It is my impression that TN and KY are going to be deluged. That water goes somewhere.
But weren't MANY towns along the MS relocated to higher ground, after the 1993 floods?
I think New Orleanians should consider that prospect.
Rebuilding in the bowl would be the height of stupidity and hubris.
Roger that ~ it'll be a long, slow process!
A more pressing problem is what they do with the "toxic Mix" -- if they get the pumps working and just pump the water out of N.O. they will be compounding the environmental disaster 100 fold. All of the now disease ridden, polluted water will enter Lake Ponchartrain and the Mississippi and make its way down to the gulf.
The Mississippi delta will be poisoned for years to come.
NOw once they figure out how to get the water out , how to clean it, and where to send it -- you will be left with a LOVE CANAL toxic site where the City of New orleans used to sit.
Look at the map. Where else would you suggest?
There are no guanantees, and after all, this is NOT a Venice, which has long since seen its days of glory. Its a major petrocenter. But hard thinking needs to be done.
If N.O. comes back it should be rebuilt as another Venice. Only an idiot would build in a swamp.
The grade level of Chicago used to be many feet lower.
see City Streets: How Chicago Raised Itself Out of the Mud and Astonished the World
I think it would be a good idea to rebuild, but what about what's left of the historical sites?
Click here to see a NOVA episode (from January) on what N.O. faces - everybody new it could happen.
They're in a bowl, and the walls that kept the water OUT will now work to keep it IN.
I'm no engineer, but once the water is in and stays there for several weeks/months, will the soil of N.O. remain useful for reconstruction? Or will it be so saturated and covered with silt that N.O. has to be filled-in or written off?
Any place on higher ground.
This was a disaster waiting to happern.
Rebuilding below sea level is just nuts.
Actually, if the levees on the Mississippi River, which 10 higher than the lake levees that have broken, break, it's goodbye New Orleans for good.
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