Created by Lee Hayes for Levees.org July 2016

Unbelievable. A Category 4 storm, with winds currently at 140 mph is headed toward the Louisiana coast.

Forecasters say Hurricane Delta could strengthen even more before it makes landfall. And will strike “as a major hurricane of at least at Category 3” early Saturday morning.

Just as dangerous as wind is the storm surge which will affect New Orleans.

But for the people of New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish, they can feel encouraged by the hurricane protection currently in place built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The hurricane protection is the largest, most complex and most expensive locally maintained urban hurricane protection in the nation and possibly the world.

On a scale of 1 to 10, if New Orleans were a 10, the next closest would be about a 3.

While no expert would say the current system is the proper one considering the total population, property and infrastructure, it is nonetheless a significantly large system. And better than the system in place when Hurricane Katrina’s surge arrived 15 years ago.