I recently watched NOVA’s program on Hurricane Katrina called Storm That Drowned A City. It was a fascinating program detailing the timeline of Katrina’s march to New Orleans, focusing on how the storm’s surges undermined and overran the city’s levees. The takeaway was that the city is no better protected now than it was three years ago.
Now comes Tropical Storm Gustav, a storm which could quickly get nasty that is now making a turn towards New Orleans. The next week may provide a chance to see if we’ve learned anything.
No sign of it down here. We had a high level inspection team from FEMA down here after Fay. A local newspaper reporter followed them around. They went to a one hour briefing on where the flooding was and how bad it was then spent an hour at their office looking for a GPS then spent another hour touring a ritzy neighborhood where there was hardly any flooding. Finally when asked by the reporter why they weren’t looking at the worst flooding they managed to find their way there but only because the reporter more or less led them to it.
I assume you saw this article on the wonderful pumps that New Orleans is relying on:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17597203/
I don’t think I would invest in New Orleans real estate any time soon.
I have learned not to live in a city on the coast that is below sea level.
Also, as an engineer, GW promised to have the city protected in less than one year. To redesign the entire canal and pump stations is absolutely HUGE. No project is ever perfect and it appears the pump manufacturer is trying to make good on the pumps.
I have no doubt there was/is corruption in a multimillion dollar contract from the govt (Republicans or Democrats).