Sad mementos at base of Historic Plaque at 17th Street Canal breach site. Photo/Roy Arrigo
This misinformation, promulgated by senior corps officials, and printed in major media from 2005 – 2007 was unsupported by data (e.g. memos, circulars, legal briefs, letters, articles, meeting minutes, etc).
Levees.org has looked for five years for the supporting data and has not found it. At the date of this printing, the Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District, the folks with the most to gain from location of this data, also has been unable to locate it.
Furthermore, the Hurricane Protection Decision Chronology published in 2008 soundly refutes the baseless legend. The Chronology, a 333-page thoroughly researched technical document appears to be the “research of choice” for Ed Link, former director of the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force who now is an engineering research professor at the University of Maryland. The Chronology also appears to be the preferred resource for Wayne Stroup, ERDC in Vicksburg for information relating to the Corps of Engineers’ decision to abandon peripheral barriers in favor of higher walls in the late 80s and early 90s.
So in closing, if you are looking for data pertaining to the catastrophic flooding of regional New Orleans during Katrina, we recommend the Chronology researched by water experts Douglas Woolley and Leonard Shabman and published in 2008.
Thank you, Sandy.
Why not the London ave canal leeve?
Dear Richard,
There were over 50 breaches of the hurricane protection levees in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish on August 29, 2005. Levees breached and failed for a variety of different reasons. When Levees.org began the nomination process by selecting the 17th Street Canal and the east side north breach of the Industrial Canal, it was always intended that these be first two, not the last two. The nomination process is complex and the amount of work is both extensive and expensive. Faced with a deadline in July 2010, Levees.org was compelled, at least initially, to nominate two breach sites which, we felt if taken together might illustrate the broad scope of the disaster.
An additional four levee breach sections (that retain integrity) that occurred on August 29, 2005 may be nominated to the National Register at a later date following future research on those breach sites.
We also wish to bring to your attention that Levees.org did the work and absorbed the expense to install a Louisiana State Historic Plaque at the east side London Avenue Canal breach site. The plaque is located at the intersection of Warrington and Mirabeau and was installed on May 20, 2011 with Irvin Mayfield Jr present who played on the Elysian Trumpet.