However this image:
showing the deck lifted completely off I10 where it crosses Lake would seem to suggest a massive surge hit this part of the lake - That's not wind damage.
Anything large enough to take that deck off would easily top the levee.
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 ...
What about the wind? Cat4-5
However this image:
showing the deck lifted completely off I10 where it crosses Lake would seem to suggest a massive surge hit this part of the lake - That's not wind damage.
Anything large enough to take that deck off would easily top the levee.
No Banana Slug Hunters!
No, I hate lawyers who say things like:
My brother, who is volunteering in New Orleans, called me earlier today to tell me that "rumor has it" that some big lawsuits were going to be filed against the Army Corps of Engineers, and I should get in on it.
I didn't think too much of it until I read this article, but if the floodwalls really were improperly constructed, there's money in it for sure.
With so much death and destruction, you know everybody is searching for a deep pocket, and it doesn't get any deeper than Uncle Sugar.
Well, there's no point suing someone who doesn't have any money, even if they are at fault.
That's the way the system works.
If the defendant can't pay, the only person who will sue them (usually) is the government, and in this case, the government isn't going to sue itself.
You're getting ahead of yourself there, aren't you, Counselor?
You're drooling.
Wuz thinking the same thing.
I am not ashamed of making money for my clients.
And they are certainly not ashamed to take it.
No, that's the way sleazy lawyers WORK the system.
You're no better than John Edwards; will you be channeling anybody during your summation to the jury? (Because I know you WILL have a jury -- what better way to sucker the government than to let a jury who STANDS TO GAIN decide, huh?)
The govt. will say "act of god" and your law suit will be gone.
LOL......you're talking about the people of NO who didn't even have the brains or wherewithall to hold themselves together for THREE WHOLE DAYS?
No erosion indeed..
How the hell would they know that, its not even dry there yet.
Why does it bother you that some people have jobs that pay well, and at the same time, do good for others?
Precisely.
Victims who had to KNOW that they lived in danger? I think not.
A hurricane is an Act of God.
But an improperly constructed floodwall is not an Act of God, it is an act of man.
But I thought you said you did it for free?
LOL @ the "doing good for others" remark.
BTW, you're changing the subject here from me to you.
er......from you to me.
Now your an engineer...
Sure, I do pro bono. But I don't do pro bono all the time.
When there's money to be made, I don't turn it down.
But an improperly constructed floodwall is not an Act of God, it is an act of man.
God trumps Man. Case dismissed.
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