2005 levee failures in Greater New Orleans: Difference between revisions

When Katrina's storm surge arrived, the hurricane protection system, authorized by Congress [[Flood Control Act of 1965| forty years earlier]], was between 60–90% complete.<ref name="gao.gov">{{Cite web|url=https://levees.org/2/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/2005-GAO-report-Testimony-Before-the-Subcommittee-on-Energy-and-Water-Development-Committee-on-Appropriations-House-of-Representatives.pdf | title= Army Corps of Engineers; Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection Project |date=2005-09-28|access-date=2021-09-20}}</ref> Responsibility for the design and construction of the levee system belongs to the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers]], while responsibility for maintenance belongs to the local levee districts. Six major investigations were conducted by civil engineers and other experts in an attempt to identify the underlying reasons for the failure of the federal flood protection system. All concurred that the primary cause of the flooding was inadequate design and construction by the Army Corps of Engineers.<ref>Robertson, Campbell. {{Cite web|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/24/us/decade-after-katrina-pointing-finger-more-firmly-at-army-corps.html |title= Decade After Katrina, Pointing Finger More Firmly at Army Corps |date=2015-05-23|website=New York Times|access-date=2016-10-20}}</ref> In April 2007, the [[American Society of Civil Engineers]] termed the flooding of New Orleans as "the worst engineering catastrophe in US History."<ref name="ACSE2007"/>

 

 

There were six major breaches in the city of [[New Orleans]] itself (the Orleans [[Parish (administrative division)|parish]], as compared to [[Greater New Orleans]] which comprises eight parishes):

 

#Three major breaches occurred on the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (locally known as the [[Industrial Canal]]). A breach on the northeast side near the junction with the [[Gulf Intracoastal Waterway]] flooded [[New Orleans East]]. Two breaches on the southeast side between Florida Avenue and Claiborne Avenue combined into a single 1,000 foot wide hole that allowed stormwater to catastrophically rush into the adjacent [[Lower Ninth Ward]].

#The [[London Avenue Canal]] in the Gentilly region, breached on both sides; on the west side near Robert E. Lee Boulevard and on the east near Mirabeau Avenue.

 

[[File:New Orleans Elevations.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Vertical cross-section of New Orleans, showing maximum levee height of 23 feet (7 m) at the Mississippi River on the left and 17.5 feet (5 m) at Lake Pontchartrain on the right]]

{{See also|Drainage in New Orleans|Hurricane preparedness for New Orleans}}

 

After the [[Great Mississippi Flood of 1927]], [[United States Congress]] passed the [[Flood Control Act of 1928]] which authorized the Corps of Engineers to design and construct flood control structures, along with levees, on the Mississippi River to protect populated areas from floods. It also affirmed the principle of local participation in federally funded projects but acknowledged that the $292 million already spent by local interests was sufficient to cover local participatory costs.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mvd.usace.army.mil/About/Mississippi-River-Commission-MRC/history/AppendixE/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090109031739/http://www.mvd.usace.army.mil/mrc/history/AppendixE.htm|url-status=live|title=Mississippi Valley Division > About > Mississippi River Commission (MRC) > History|archivedate=January 9, 2009|website=www.mvd.usace.army.mil|accessdate=December 19, 2022}}</ref> It is instructive to note that, in addition, sovereign immunity was given to the Corps of Engineers under Section 3 of the Flood Control Act of 1928, which states “no liability of any kind would attach or rest upon the United States for any damage from or by floods or flood waters at any place, provided that if on any stretch of the banks of the Mississippi River it was impracticable to construct levees.” 33 U.S.C. § 702c. Section 702c is sometimes referred as “Section 3 of the act,” based on where it appears in the Public law.

The Orleans Avenue Canal midway between the 17th Street Canal and the London Avenue Canal, engineered to the same standards, and presumably put under similar stress during the hurricane, survived intact due, in part, to the presence of an unintended 100-foot-long ‘spillway,’ a section of legacy wall that was significantly lower than the adjacent floodwalls.<ref>Volume 1, USACE Interagency Performance Evaluation Taskforce, 44.</ref>

 

 

==Investigations==