Katrina Coverage

From this:
Engineer Manual No. 1110-2-2502 is not a publication that would normally excite interest from the general population. But in the weeks and months ahead, as New Orleans struggles to rebuild from the floods of Hurricane Katrina, Section 4 of that Army Corps of Engineers book could be scrutinized intensely by city and state officials.
The […]

This page has pictures of the measures that various countries take to protect their coastlines from being flooded, ending with the New Orleans levee system. Point taken, but it's not exactly fair to blame the Army Corps of Engineers for fault that, once again, is shared by various levels of government as well as the […]

From this:
A termite expert is questioning whether tiny, voracious Formosan termites played a role in the failure of levee walls in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
Louisiana State University entomologist Gregg Henderson said there are clear signs that the destructive insects were present, and he wants the opportunity to dig into the levees beneath the walls […]

From this:
A difference in soil boring data transferred from one chart to another may have played a key role in engineering decisions that led to the breach on the 17th Street Canal floodwall that flooded much of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, National Science Foundation investigators say.
A cross-section drawing in the project design documents shows […]

The Army Corps of Engineers did a design review of the New Orleans levees in 1990. Apparently the engineers on the project thought the soil under the 17th Street Canal was stronger than it was, and one of their offices discovered this at that time:
Corps documents show the mistake of overly optimistic levee strength was […]

Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Susan Jackson responded to the news that Katrina was apparently weaker than originally reported as follows:
"In the Gulf, Katrina was a Category 5 storm, and the surge was still Category 5 when it hit the ground… It's the surge — the pressure of water against those levee walls — that's […]

The Army Corps of Engineers said the plan for improved levees that is being pushed by President George Bush is a good one for the areas where levees breached but will do nothing to protect the Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans East or St. Bernard Parish.
…The plan calls for closing off the levees at the […]

"Team Louisiana", the state-sponsored "forensic levee investigation team" with "six LSU professors and three independent engineers" says the floodwall on the 17th street canal was bound to fail due to improper design that didn't take into account weak soils below the levee.
And, they say that bad design should have been obvious to those responsible: the […]

From this:
Sheet piling supporting the failed floodwall on the 17th Street Canal extends just 10 feet below sea level, 7 feet shorter than the Corps of Engineers has maintained, a team of investigators said Wednesday [11/9], strengthening earlier findings that faulty design and construction played a role in the canal breaches that flooded much of […]

From this:
When the Texas construction firm AquaTerra Contracting began work on an Army Corps of Engineers hurricane protection project on New Orleans' West Bank, it encountered a serious problem: Its floodwalls wouldn't stand up straight in the mushy soil.
AquaTerra workers tried driving steel sheet piling down to the 55-foot depth the design required for the […]