US hurricane damage 'preventable' (BBC News)

[Up2Late]

("...if just "relatively inexpensive modifications" had been made "some of the failures would likely have been prevented..." Grrrrrr!)

Wednesday, 2 November 2005, 22:35 GMT

US hurricane damage 'preventable'

By Alastair Leithead
BBC news, Miami

Failures in the flood defence system protecting the US city of New Orleans could have been prevented by relatively cheap modifications, a new report says.

The American Society of Civil Engineers found that rather than a few breaches in the levees caused by Hurricane Katrina, there were dozens of failings. The society put some of the failings down to poor construction.

It presented its interim report on the flooding to Congress on Wednesday, six weeks after the hurricane hit. Hurricane Katrina was a catastrophic storm, but it was the breaches of the levee flood defence system which did the majority of the damage in New Orleans.

The society found that rather than there being a few breaks in the levees caused by water going over the top, there were dozens of breaches across the entire system - much of it flowing through the defences. The report to Congress stated that if just "relatively inexpensive modifications" had been made "some of the failures would likely have been prevented".

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4401692.stm>
(more at link above)

[Gronk Groks]

1. Why am I not surprized....

...a few million in prevention would of saved billions in reconstruction. Maybe a 1000 or so lives to boot.

[RC]

8. Halliburton needs the money to

pay cheney his on going severance pay

[TallahasseeGrannie]

2. Obviously

I've been hearing for years that a Cat 4 or 5 would take New Orleans OUT. And it did.

[Up2Late]

4. Good thing those Cat 4's are so rare...,

:sarcasm:...what was it, FIVE this year, 3 of those 5 being Category 5 storms.

Yeah, why worry. :sarcasm:

<http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/atlantic/2005/index.html>
<http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/>

[TallahasseeGrannie]

5. Without even looking

I remember the following 4 or 5's....Opal, David, Gilbert, Hugo, Andrew.

They were sitting ducks.

[Ready4Change]

3. Who built the levees that failed?

Did they fail before reaching their design limits? From what I hear many gave way before being overtopped, which speaks to me of errors in their construction.

I've yet to hear anything regarding what companies had the contracts to build those levees. Seems a logical next step.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

6. You know, I don't know

but I was under the impression they were very old? But I could be wrong. It's happened.

[Up2Late]

7. New Orleans and Louisiana are famous for corruption

This is really not that surprising.

Here's another report from NPR:

<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4986779>

Flawed Walls Led to Flooding in New Orleans

Listen to this story...(at link above)
by David Kestenbaum

All Things Considered, November 2, 2005 · Engineers testify before the Senate that downtown New Orleans should not have flooded during Hurricane Katrina. The flooding occurred because walls along canals had faulty foundations and collapsed. The investigators said it's unclear whether the failures were the result of design flaws or cutting corners during construction.

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. The Army Corp of Engineers

are responsible for the levees, so this is mainly a Federal problem.

[Ready4Change]

12. But do they manage construction, or actually DO construction?

Is the work performed by the Army, or do they manage construction contractors?

[SoCalDem]

10. Off topic. but.. It has come to my attention that UKers are hogging

vowels.. when they name their children

carry on :)

[Brundle_Fly]

11. hindsight

still 20/20

good to know.