Government Saw Flood Risk but Not Levee Failure

New York Times ^ | September 2, 2005 | Scott Shane and Eric Lipton

[infocats]

"Time to re-instate Works Progress Assoc."

Certainly worked for FDR...and it carried a lot of people through the Great Depression. Incidentally, most if not all of their construction projects are functioning well to this day.

[AFPhys]

You better get in there and tell them all how to do it.

I suspect you may be the only one in the country who can.

[AFPhys]

Ahh... so it is the federal government's fault that the city's resident's let the homes they lived in get flooded?

So good to know that.

[infocats]

"Ahh... so it is the federal government's fault that the city's resident's let the homes they lived in get flooded?"

My guess is that when a full post mortem is done, the finding will be (or should be) that there is plenty of blame to go around at all levels of government from the fed to the very local.

[mewzilla]

I believe federal funding wasn't forthcoming because NO/LA refused to cough up its share. Their decision.

[Poodlebrain]

The place where the breach occurred was not an earthen levee. The 17th Street Canal levee was concrete with a sea wall on top of the levee. The levee and/or sea wall (more likely) was struck by a barge and gave way. The force of rushing water did the rest of the necessary damage to breach the barrier.

[Let's Roll]

Yes - the entire fossil fuel debacle also illustrates this.

If you're a dim you do everything you can to limit the supply/distribution of petroleum products and then when prices rise you blame EEE-VIL big oil and the Bush WH.

It's the perfect storm - especially as the msm never challenges how your actions have contributed to the situation. Are there enough Americans left who can see through this?

[finnman69]

It should be pointed out that the big levee break was one of the brand new levees.

[pepsionice]

It is kinda strange that the newer of the levees broke. One would ask some questions as to who built it and to what spec's.

[finnman69]

As I heard it described, when the water spilled over, it scoured out the earth behind the levee, thereby destroying the lateral support that provided the support for the levee. Perhaps a taller levee might have held.

[KC_for_Freedom]

In my scan of the plan, a breech of the levee was very much highlighted. But they plan also called for people to evacuate on their own and for busses and school busses to be used. So not a lot of people followed the plan.

[xrhopsiomega]

Looking at these pictures, it's pretty scary how narrow the concrete levee's are. I'm sure they were designed to specs, but it's sad to see how such a small, fragile looking thing can cause so much destruction.

I know that they said they think the footing behind the wall was washed out and caused the failure. However, I'd just like to point out that concrete handles only compression well, not tension and bending as a cantilever wall would undergo without backfill.

These walls don't appear to be backfilled to provide strength. It's been mentioned that the walls may have been new construction. Does anyone know if they were not yet finished with construction and had planned to backfill the walls later?
This is just pure speculation by me; They most likely were designed without additional backfill, but it's worth asking.

About Concrete Cantilever Walls