... may have doomed New Orleans. That, and overzealous pumping. But it was the levee engineering that really blew chunks, apparently.
Solomon's House: On the Levees of New Orleans and
Solomon's House: On the Levees of New Orleans, Book II do a pretty extensive analysis of the levee system, the pumping process, and what can happen when you use rubber flaps to seal between blocks in a floodwall.
(What can happen? It fails. What'd you expect?)
There's also evidence that barrier sheet wall which was supposed to go down 30 to 40 feet really went down only about 3 or 4.
Let's hope they rebuild the levees RIGHT, instead of just patching things up...
J.
Comments (2)
It would make more sense, although be more expensive, to move in enough fill to bring the furschlugginer sub-sea level areas to above sea level; then you don't have to worry about flooding (storm surge is still a potential problem, but not a catastrophe waiting to happen). They're going to have to bulldoze major portions of the lowlying areas anyway, so why not use a permanent fix?
Posted by John C. | October 9, 2005 9:27 PM
Posted on October 9, 2005 21:27
It would make sense - so it's probably not going to happen.
Maybe we could refer that company that moved a few million cubic yards of dirt for the fifth runway at Hartsfield.
However, I don't think there's any good fill sources relatively near New Orleans....
J.
Posted by JLawson | October 9, 2005 9:48 PM
Posted on October 9, 2005 21:48