A report detailing the New Orleans levee failures was released today by an expert engineering panel of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) .
The 84-page report, “The New Orleans Hurricane Protection System: What Went Wrong and Why,” targets the public and policymakers, and supplements the 6000-page IPET report sponsored by the US Army Corps of Engineers after Katrina sideswiped the port city.
In the ASCE report, the panel estimated that despite the levees and floodwalls, New Orleans residents’ pre-Katrina risk was at a 1,000-fold higher rate than considered minimally acceptable for a major U.S. dam.
The responsibility for the design, construction and performance of the New Orleans’ flood protection system belongs by federal law and Congressional mandate to the US Army Corps of Engineers. This means that the primary responsibility for the New Orleans flooding belongs with the Army Corps, and ultimately with Congress.
If you want to help New Orleans, go to www.levees.org and join us. Don’t we all deserve levees that work?
Sandy Rosenthal
Founder, Levees.Org
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article ASCE Report: New Orleans levees 1,000 times less safe than US dams, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.