Did a barge cause the Industrial Canal breach?
Tags: floodwalls, conspiracy theoriesHere are some links. Please summarize:
thread: "The story from those that lived in the area is that the 17th street levee was breached because the construction company working on the old Hammond bridge left a big barge in the canal and the hurricane tossed it around and it busted out a section of the wall."
link "there appears to be a dangerous confusion of damage done to the Industrial Canal, which is the issue here, and damage done to the 17th Street Canal, which is a red herring" (links to this)
9/14 "Mystery Surrounds Levee Breaches"
link "One additional component which as been virtually ignored as the cause of much of the catastrophic flooding in New Orleans was not the topping of the levees by storm surge but the collapse of them by barges. According to a story in The New Orleans Times-Picayune: "A loose barge may have caused a large breach in the east side of the Industrial Canal floodwall. . . " Quoting Army Corps of Engineers project manager Al Naomi: "(The breach is) ultimately in my opinion what got (the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish) flooded." That same story also noted the potential that "small pontoon barges" in the 17th Street Canal "are still unaccounted for" and originally were moored alongside the Old Hammond Highway bridge over the canal, that ironically were in the process of being "hurricane-proofed" as Katrina struck August 29th. . . The Time-Picayune story closes with a quote questioning the Army Corp project manager: "Leonardo Ramirez, a construction worker and Metairie resident who lives on the Jefferson Parish side of the levee near the breached area, said that he thought he heard a barge hitting the levee early Monday, although he did not see it happen: "At quarter to six in the morning, we head a huge bang, and then we heard another. It was so loud. It scared us."
link to video at this site
