Posted on 09/04/2005 7:20:44 PM PDT by jonatron
The breach in the 17th Street Canal levee that had put the city of New Orleans underwater was essentially closed early Sunday evening after days of work and the use of "ingenuity to the max," a top U.S. Corps of Engineers general said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
I wonder if they will pump it slow just to let the outer layer to dry
Are the levees just clay or is there a rock foundation of any kind?
How thick is the levee? How high?
Not likely; EVAPORATION would get rid of more water than a number of smaller pumps.
The NORMAL pumps they use are 12 to 14 foot in diameter, are cranked by 600 (or so) horsepower motors and move 550 to 1000 CFS (Cubic Feet/second) ...
ONE small thundershower and all the 'effort' of your smaller pumps would be negated.
Since the water will be pumped out slowly, maybe it won't be so bad.
That's an amazing story. Where's the link?
I am not sure pressure is the issue, erosion is
THEN pressure!
Or is that what you meant?
I have a general question I have not seen addressed. Can all this toxic water simply be pumped out into either Lake Ponchatrain or the Mississippi without doing something to purify it first, or do they simply pump away and hope it does not do any kind of damage?
Agreed, I would think about some 3 or 4 inch railroad ballast fill behind it now, and Plenty of it.
Great news.
The NORMAL pumps they use are 12 to 14 foot in diameter, are cranked by 600 (or so) horsepower motors and move 550 to 1000 CFS (Cubic Feet/second) ...
It is in another story at the same link as listed for for this article, at the beginning of this thread.
nola.com
they simply pump away and hope it does not do any kind of damage?
The sun and mother nature will eventually take care of it. I just wouldn't go swimming for a while. You don't think the Mississippi water was clean when it got to NO do you? It's only slightly more brackish now.
I believe the damage will be limited by the dilution factor. Get it in the lake or river and it is united with the Gulf water.
Besides I don't know the toxins. Oil, bacteria, sewer waste. Pump away, there is not treatment facility that could do anything anyway.
Been wondering about repair progress. Dosen't get mentioned much on TV.
But maybe this is just a mess, and people need to pray for dry weather (a rarity in South Louisiana, but September can be a dry month -- relatively speaking).
I imagine most restaurants that have walkin freezers probably have a horrible stench by now with the rotting food...
My Aunt lives 2 blocks from the Lake levee (she was pulled by C.G.) She said it ruptured when it was hit by a barge!
The barge was trying to fix a bridge.
It's not Bush's fault!!
Where are the normal pumps they are going to use?
Obviously,
a) they were looted to pump out somebody's own personal basement ..
b) Some of those assets are/may be under water; this necessiates drying out the AC Switchgear ('fusebox') adn the motors (some of these motors run off 3-phase 6,000 volt 25 Hz AC and some off 60 Hz AC)
c) Commecial AC power has not been restored as of yet to the pump stations (some of these stations pump water, successively, to higher and higher canals; can't start one without starting all those 'in series').
Would it make a difference if it's not a levee? I saw a guy on tonight from the Army Corps of Engineers and he said it wasn't a levee, it was a canal retaining wall (?).....I may be wrong about what he called it. But he definitely said it wasn't a levee.
What about the other breach?
I read that it's a floodwall not a levee. Floodwalls are made of steel and concrete. Levees are made of earth and are tringular shaped with the top flattened.
For crying out loud, he's modestly relating his Congressional Medal of Honor citation as I type.
Gotta go...gotta watch...
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