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So we know that the New Orleans levee-risk study was faulted – we know that engineers have criticized holes in the analysis that was conducted, and that the Army Corps of Engineers admitted in June 2006 that design flaws in the New Orleans levee system had caused most of the flooding during Hurricane Katrina.

Did you know that the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta has 2,300 miles of (earthen) levees that protect cities and farmland, Petroleum, high-tech, agriculture, environmental corporations that generate millions of dollars annually?

Les Harter, levee chief at the CA Dept. of Water Resources (DWR) has said, “The floodwalls in New Orleans were 15 years old and they failed. Our levees are 100 years old. We estimate we have one-half the level of protection that New Orleans had.”

Congressional Democrats are interested in forming an investigative panel to investigate the failure of N.O. levees and the government’s efforts to repatriate and rebuild the city. That commission is being referred to as the 8/29 commission.

If you’re taking the time to read this blog and visit this web site, please take the time to get involved further. Sign the petitions, send the website to your friends and family across the country, talk to people in your community about this. We need you to speak up and be heard.

One of my personal goals is to build this CA chapter to over 500 members by 5/5/07. We have right now 322 CA chapter members and we have a voice, California. Send me an email with your thoughts on how to spread the word – what do you think about a Town Hall “members and friends” Meeting in the Sacto area?

Thank you, and ya’ll come back again soon. 

KC

Lessons from Hurricane Katrina: Can we save California’s Delta?

Raymond B. Seed, Professor of GeoEngineering, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley, CA,  Past Presentation 2006

The catastrophic flooding of New Orleans during hurricane Katrina was the single most costly failure of an engineered system in history. It was also a social and cultural tragedy of unprecedented peacetime proportions for the United States.

After the disaster, a team of leading experts from across the country examined the engineering and organizational issues that led to the failure of the levees. Their findings have direct and timely implications for California, the state currently facing the greatest risk of catastrophic flooding from levee failure.

Professor Ray Seed co-chairs the joint State-Federal Technical Advisory Committee for assessment of levee-related risk for the State of California. Professor Seed also led the post-Katrina investigation, and presented his team