Katrina Coverage

From this:

[Jesse] Jackson believes a big barge crashed through the floodwall here [Industrial Canal], bringing the tidal surge into this neighborhood, causing the devastation.

According to Ernest Murry from the Army Corps of Engineers, everything - including who owns the barge - is still up in the air. The barge has an ID #, but they don't know why it was there during the storm. And, from Murry: "My theory is the barge came through after the wall fell".

The Army Corps of Engineers said the sheet pilings for the flood wall on the Industrial Canal were driven 20 feet deep. That's what engineers specified to protect the area from a category-3 hurricane.

As crews continue to make repairs, Murry said he thinks water came over the top of the floodwall, undermining the levee.

The Army Corps of Engineers said it does not know who owns the barge that came crashing through the neighborhood during Hurricane Katrina.

“It eroded all the ground on the backside of the wall and then the wall just collapsed over,” Murry said, pointing out one of two breaches on the east side of the Industrial Canal.

But why, Jackson asked, was that barge in this canal as a category-4 hurricane made landfall?

“When they anticipate a hurricane coming, don’t they move barges further away from the possibility of this kind of collision?” Jackson said as Murry nodded in agreement.

When the barge did come through, Murry said it landed on top of some homes.

“Actually, it was about 30 feet over…during Katrina. And then when Rita came through, it floated through again and came over this way,” he said.

Previously: Did a barge cause the Industrial Canal breach? and Did barges cause the floodwall breaches?

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 13th, 2005 at 9:03 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.