"Engineers Fear Levee Repairs Not Enough"
Tags: levees, floodwalls, army corps of engineers, universities, industrial canalFrom this:
Repairs to New Orleans' levees may be insufficient to protect residents moving back to the devastated city if another hurricane comes before the tropical storm season ends this month, expert engineers said Wednesday.
Dozens of breaches continue to mar the city's levee system, including a large seep at the Industrial Canal last week, according to engineering experts who have examined the floodwalls…
At the Industrial Canal levee, which abuts New Orleans' obliterated Ninth Ward, repairs to breaches "were not adequate for a high-water incidence _ for instance, another hurricane storm surge with the storm season that isn't yet behind us, or even a very high tide," said Raymond B. Seed. Seed, a University of California at Berkeley engineering professor, participated in a National Science Foundation study investigating the levee failures.
The large seep at that levee, which occurred Oct. 24, "was not entirely unexpected," Seed told the panel.
However, he said, deeper walls "that will be far more stable than they were before" have been dug in at least some areas since the NSF first examined the levees.
"I don't think there is a long-term risk to the city of New Orleans," Seed said…
For Seed's full findings, see UC Berkeley: ” Investigators release preliminary findings of levee failures at Senate hearing”
