Posted on 05/21/2008 5:19:49 PM PDT by Dawnsblood
Despite more than $22 million in repairs, a levee that broke with catastrophic effect during Hurricane Katrina is leaking again because of the mushy ground on which New Orleans was built, raising serious questions about the reliability of the city's flood defenses.
Outside engineering experts who have studied the project told The Associated Press that the type of seepage spotted at the 17th Street Canal in the Lakeview neighborhood afflicts other New Orleans levees, too, and could cause some of them to collapse during a storm.
The Army Corps of Engineers has spent about $4 billion so far of the $14 billion set aside by Congress to repair and upgrade the metropolitan area's hundreds of miles of levees by 2011. Some outside experts said the leak could mean that billions more will be needed and that some of the work already completed may need to be redone.
"It is all based on a 30-year-old defunct model of thinking, and it means that when they wake up to this one — really — our cost is going to increase significantly," said Bob Bea, a civil engineer at the University of California at Berkeley.
The Army Corps of Engineers disputed the experts' dire assessment. The agency said it is taking the risk of seepage into account and rebuilding the levees with an adequate margin of safety.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Condeming the housing is different from condeming the port, you see?
Also, I allow for commercial pressure on government action (Kelo, yuck - ptew) - if the government razed the housing, some shipping interest would buy enough politicians to reopen the port.
Which it why I said you can’t move it - someone will bribe enough people to put it back.
That is actually a good idea! :)
I am sure some other obscure critter would be horribly threatened according to environmentalist but it might be cleaner in the long run. Much of New Orleans resembled a landfill prior to Katrina.
Liquefaction in NOLA could kill a lot of people.
American Heritage Science Dictionary: The process by which sediment that is very wet starts to behave like a liquid. Liquefaction occurs because of the increased pore pressure and reduced effective stress between solid particles generated by the presence of liquid. It is often caused by severe shaking, especially that associated with earthquakes.
New Orleans in my opinion, which no body ask for, in all practical purpose a natural environmental disaster again already in the making. There in that marsh in which the city is built upon, is not much one can do to stop nature. Puting
heavy concrete slabs, or what ever is going to sink in to the muck, and of course you have those that reaped millions, will complain that we, the taxpayers did not spend or send enough money to bail them out. If that ever happens again, I hope the government will declare it a disaster area, and close the city down, and save the billions from the sink hole. Go ahead , line up, and put your hands out to recieve your “just compensation”, Nagin.
Best Regards,
Bullfrog
INDEED!!!
Buttweet tings!
Galveston Texas raised the entire city 4 to 6 feet and built a seawall 17 feet high to protect the city from Hurricanes. It did it all between 1902 and 1908 without federal aid.
>> It can’t be moved, in real terms - I mean, you could evacuate the city, raze it, condemn the land, and commercial interests would put it right back. (Actually, that might have been cheaper...) <<
Declare it a national park.
>> Port cities exist for a reason. <<
The current port of New Orleans is a fraction the size of the one centered in LaPlace. Ports in Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, and Plaquemines are almost as large.
Fortunately, I’m unaware of any major fault lines near New Orleans.
It’s really hard for W to repair these levees when others in his administration are setting bombs in them and blowing them up.
Agreed. As many of us here stated three years ago: time to abandon that city, and rebuild something further up the delta.
“Abandon”... That is even better ... possibly, the absolutely best thing to do would be to CONDEMN NO... and declare it unfit area for habitation, at least, in part.
Very nice graphic showing the level of the Mississippi, Lake Pontchartrain, and New Orleans proper. Thanks for posting it.
No, they have to model it after the “Big Dig” in Massachusetts. It’s what Ted would do if he could......
That graphic is kind of like a c.a.t.-scan image. The doctor holds it up, jabs a finger at it, and exclaims, “That’s the problem right there!”
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