Posted on 09/20/2005 11:38:42 PM PDT by CobaltBlue
Louisiana's top hurricane experts have rejected the official explanations for the floodwall collapses that inundated much of New Orleans, concluding that Hurricane Katrina's storm surges were much smaller than authorities have suggested and that the city's flood- protection system should have kept most of the city dry.
With the help of computer models and visual evidence, scientists at Louisiana State University's Hurricane Center have concluded that Katrina's surges did not come close to overtopping those barriers.
* * * * 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," said van Heerden. * * * * Tuesday, researchers showed numerous indications that Katrina's surge was not as tall as the lakefront's protections. They showed a "debris line" that indicates the top height of Katrina's waves was at least four feet below the crest of Lake Pontchartrain's levees. They also pointed out how the breached floodwalls near the lake showed no signs of overtopping -- no splattering of mud, no drip lines and no erosion at their bases. They contended that the pattern of destruction behind the breaches was consistent with a localized "pressure burst," rather than widespread overtopping.
Their model indicates that most of the surge around the lake and its nearby canals was less than 11 feet above sea level, and that none of it should have been greater than 13 feet. The Army Corps's flood-protection system for New Orleans was designed to handle surges of more than 14 feet above sea level.
"This should not have been a big deal for these floodwalls," said oceanographer G. Paul Kemp. There's no way this should have exceeded the capacity."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
If I'm not mistaken, there was a report of a loose barge in the 17th street canal during the storm. Another report said that a barge was sunk at the point of the breech. Wind and waves banging one of those big suckers against the flood wall couldn't possibly be a good thing for the structural integrity.
Geaux Tigers, indeed.
If ya'll decide to have a bite at the Chimes, please eat some of that good duck gumbo and think of me!
I am stuck up here in Yankee Land (Northern Virginia) dreaming of duck.
The way a case like this works, you sue everybody, and let the court sort it all out.
The reason being, that once the case is going, you can take depositions and have experts examine things and prevent evidence from being destroyed. So, you sue them all as soon as you can.
They don't like it, but that's the way it has to be. Otherwise they destroy evidence and hide evidence and refuse to cooperate.
We left New Orleans because of the corruption and the crime and the poverty and the illiteracy and a slew of other bad things you haven't even mentioned. One of them was fear of flooding, because of all the news reports that a hurricane would cause catastrophic flooding.
I love New Orleans, I miss New Orleans, and I hope they will rebuild better than ever.
The Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for flood control in the region.
But you raise an interesting point. New Orleans is one of the places where the response to the melt-down of their city has been to build gated communities and get as far away from "those people" as possible.
Very much like the Third World.
People are free to live in a gated community if they choose to do so, but turning the rest of your city over to the criminals is a bad decision.
Put me on your ping list, please.
My husband was just telling me that the Levee Board is said to have mis-spent a lot of money in the past.
We might see the Justice Department get involved and maybe some of these idiots will go to jail.
There certainly are dumb lawsuits.
But then, I can't think of anything that has humans involved that doesn't have something dumb happen once in a while.
My family has alot of history in NO, historic former family buildings may be trashed. I hope not. My folks love NO and visit often. Let's hope it does come back wiser for wear.
Of course we have. But Congress has waived sovereign immunity for some causes of action, and so have the various states.
Jumping through the hoops to get around sovereign immunity is part of the job.
FWIW, I'd get a second opinion...
If you click on my profile, I have linked a couple of New Orleans blogs that are good.
Will link more as I run across them.
It wouldn't be the first time federal money money has been used to enforce apartheid. Chicago doesn't have a lot of levees, but it has expressways which were routed for the purpose of separating blacks and whites.
Deliberately? I know that, when the highway boom was getting started, these things tended to be built through the poorest neighborhoods since the property was cheaper there, instead of planning what would be best in the long run.
My impression is that the canal and levee system in Louisiana tend to follow the natural terrain, more or less.
So what you're saying is that your own husband will be a witness for the defense in this case you're "getting in on?"
"The number one job of government is covering their ass. Doesn't matter if it's federal, state, or local, that's their primary goal and their number one product."
The number one job of government is controlling the people. If they have to cover their ass, fine. That's part of their job. Power and authority are not surrendered easily.
My wife was there when the Chicago expressway system was built. The Expressway was built along existing racial boundaries. You can't see this anymore, because most of the white people have moved to the suburbs.
I find this interesting, because I live in northeast Florida, and growing up we had black neighborhoods and white neighborhood intermingled like checkerboards. Now the divisions are invisible because all those old neighborhoods are integrated. The rich have their gated communities, but the middle and lower classes didn't split apart.
Whatever.
Non-responsive, Your Honor.
Me, too.
One of the things I like to do is look at old maps, to see how communities develop. Here in NoVA, most of the highways are along old roads, which were along old Indian trails, which were along ridges. Or along old railroad beds, which also followed old Indian trails.
you know everybody is searching for a deep pocket, and it doesn't get any deeper than Uncle Sugar.
I applaud your candid statements.
Lawyers (your everybody) are always looking for deep pockets, not justice.
My opinion of lawyers cannot get any lower, so it's refreshing to see a lawyer admit in a public forum that he or she is just a greedy parasite
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