SLOW GOING: Four years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the Army Corps has failed to provide a clear plan for preventing the next disaster
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The Army Corps of Engineers' road map for protecting coastal Louisiana from a Category 5 hurricane is substantially flawed because it fails to recommend a clear plan that can be adopted quickly, according to a National Research Council review released today.
The corps' long-overdue Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Program report, congressionally mandated after 2005's Hurricane Katrina and finalized this month, instead lays out 27 alternatives, highlighting none as preferred.
"The LACPR has not proposed, and apparently does not intend to propose, a single plan or a preferred initial course of action," said the NRC report, which evaluated the Army Corps' March draft plan. "This means that actions for improving hurricane storm surge protection for southern Louisiana will be further delayed."
Corps officials say that with such a complicated and potentially disruptive task at hand, they believe area officials and stakeholders should decide which plan is best for the region.
"What we determined was that rather than the corps moving ahead and making the decision on this, we needed to document what the viable plans were and what the tradeoffs associated with the plans were -- then, corroborating with the state, get back to the broader public and local governments and stakeholders and try to get their feelings on what the acceptable tradeoffs were," said Tim Axtman, senior project manager with the Army Corps' New Orleans protection and restoration branch.
But state officials also have complained about the approach, saying the lack of an actionable plan leaves Louisiana vulnerable.
"With another hurricane season approaching, Louisiana needs the corps prepared to take swift action," Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) said in March. "Instead, this report sets us up for more study."
The NRC report praises the corps for identifying nonstructural protection methods that do not involve building levees and floodwalls but criticizes the agency for failing to suggest how to coax the public to comply with the measures.
"Simply announcing that a nonstructural measure -- such as elevating buildings -- can reduce flood damages will not necessarily result in buildings being elevated," the report says.
The corps plan "does not deal with actions needed to actually persuade households to voluntarily take part in such a nonstructural protection program, such as informing households of the risks they face, formulating standards for cost-effective elevation and other nonstructural mitigation measures," the report states.
Axtman said such an initiative would require participation from multiple federal agencies and local leaders.
"There are lots of people that should and probably would be engaged in developing those kinds of details," he said. "There needs to be engagement from those folks. And ultimately, this may need to be developed into a national policy, not just one for coastal Louisiana."
NRC also critiqued the corps' plan for rebuilding the rapidly deteriorating Louisiana coastline, noting that the agency failed to prove that enough sediment exists to maintain the current configuration.
Rather than waste energy on trying to maintain the eroding shoreline, the corps should focus on protecting and restoring high-priority areas, the report says.
NRC disagreed with the corps' preference for working within existing congressionally authorized coastal restoration programs, recommending that the agency push for new legislation specifically targeting Louisiana restoration -- similar to laws developed for restoring the Florida Everglades.
"If these projects are to be developed and implemented in a coordinated fashion across all of coastal Louisiana, this current situation of multiple authorizations -- which may entail lengthy re-authorization processes if the corps wishes to adjust operational coals -- will hinder comprehensive, collaborative, and adaptive restoration and protection," the report says.
Finally, NRC recommended that the Army Corps work with Louisiana officials to set priorities and take swift action.
"There is work to be done, but I think we've really moved closer to the solution," Axtman said. "It's just that, as it turns out, there are multiple solutions to get the desired results."
Reprinted from Greenwire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500
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21 Comments
Add CommentA Civil Engineer friend of mine says that no competent engineer or or engineering graduate will work for the Corps.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey want to work for private company's where the competency and skill level is much higher.
There is only one real solution to the gulf coast flooding problem. MOVE INLAND or take your chances. Only the stupid try to fight a battle that can not be won.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Army corp of Engineers can recommend patches and bandaids for a short term solutions but there is no perminant fix, and only the government, state and federal have the funds to waste on such a futile effort.
Uh... Protecting New Orleans from a Category 5 hurricane doesn't seem remotely possible - maybe that's why there is no such plan.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswe are surrounded by water, gulf on one side, lake on another and the river on another - that will be alot of protection that is needed!! I guess the government needs another Katrina to wake up and cost them another multi-million in tax dollars - it is up to you pay now or pay later!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe are surrounded by water on 3 sides, gulf, lake and river -
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthat is alot of protection that is needed. As the old saying pay it now or pay the multi-million in restoring in the future!! Government it is up to you but one day New Orleans will be under water ( being that it is 17 ft below sea level) if we get a direct hit from a Category 5.
We are surrounded by water on three sides, gulf, lake and the Mississippi River - that is alot of protection to protect. There is an old saying pay it now or pay it later!! If New Orleans gets a direct hit from a Category 5 she will no longer be there (NO is 17 ft below sea level) and alot of life and property will be lost and the cost to the goverment will be in the trillions. There needs to be a plan they have done it in Holland why not here - that plan sounded like it will work but the cost is to high but will the cost of the next Category 5 be?? Anyone want to guess?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere seems to be a lot of confusion about the actual strength of Katrina in New Orleans. Remember, Katrina's eye didn't hit N.O. It made landfall thirty or forty miles east. The city area actually experienced a strong cat 1 or weak cat 2 storm. All of the hooha that has happened since Katrina has confirmed two of my longtime beliefs: a) New Orleans is a stupid place to build a city and b)The Army Corps of Engineers is and has been one of the biggest purveyors of pork politics in the country.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFirst: over half of New Orleans is above sea level, and of the city that flooded due to Corps Engineering Failures on August 29, 2005, over half of those areas had never flooded before the corps flood walls failed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSecond: SA is doing a serious disservice to us all by not focusing on this Corps Engineering Issue, to wit: they are still doing it the wrong way at the Corps of Engineers.
1) The $800 Million we already appropriated for "Marganza to the Gulf" which they spend on further study to bump the cost estimates for that to $11 Billion (12 times).
2) Or, the $150 Million we gave them for surge protection in the MRGO? More study, another $2 Billion.
3) Pump drainage options? 1.8 Billion and they have decided to go with their own self-admitted inferior design.
4) $5 M to Outreach Process Partners (OPP) for public relations, message management and media rehabilitation.
No where in this article or in your SA coverage of the Corps do you address: A) Their inherently Bad Engineering Practices (which in fact flooded New Orleans in the first place), or B) The money and time they have wasted "studying the problem" stringing us along every hurricane season.
Why is this?
What does SA have to lose or gain from biasing their coverage of the Corps of Engineers, and failing to follow up on the greatest civil engineering failure in history: the flooding of New Orleans. Why?
SA puts the entire country at risk by ignoring the Corps' Incompetence, since the Corps of Engineers structures are everywhere. New Orleans is hardly unique in that.It could and probably will be any of you next time, like the Midwest Floods of 08 (or '93)... or Nevada last year... or Sacramento... or Washington last year... or St Louis... or Dallas...
Thank you,
Editilla~New Orleans Ladder
http://noladder.blogspot.com/
Sorry y'all... that was a 'typo': $450 Million dollars for surge protection for the city and they bumped those costs to 1.2 Billion (basically tripling).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd I forgot to ONCE AGAIN CORRECT THIS MEDIA:
[Four years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans...]
Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong.
IT'S THE LEVEES STUPID!
As a commentator pointed out above (again) Katrina missed the city by nearly 50 miles.
Why does Scientific American continue to tell the lie that Katrina flooded New Orleans?
The Corps' flood protection structures Failed in 53 places.
The major failures which flooded most of New Orleans, the 17th Street Canal, London Ave Canal and Industrial Canal, were all distinctly the results of the Corps' Bad Engineering. These are the ones you saw on TV. They failed from substandard materials, not mother nature.
They admitted this in Federal Court.
Please at least do your homework and perhaps ask around for other engineering analysis.
Also you should disclose if this author ever worked for the Corps PR Firm, OPP, Optimal Process Partners, or spoke to anyone from that firm in preparing this piece of advertorial.
Thank you,
Editilla~New Orleans Ladder
http://noladder.blogspot.com/
This is more of a question:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIsn't the NO metropolitan areas generally subsiding?
Wouldn't it be prudent to plan for upwards of 5 feet of sea rise by the end of the century?
Aren't the wetlands between New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico eroding to where the city will in fact be on the Gulf in the not too distant future?
So my conclusion is that the bigger question might be how much of New Orleans really can be defended
New Orleans News Ladder:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"[Four years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans...]
Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong.
IT'S THE LEVEES STUPID!
As a commentator pointed out above (again) Katrina missed the city by nearly 50 miles.
Why does Scientific American continue to tell the lie that Katrina flooded New Orleans?"
We have been told time and again that Katrina flooded New Orleans due to the incompetence of the Army corp of engineers. What a pile of BS, for the last 40 or more years the politicians and bureaucrats of New Orleans have been stealing the levee construction and repair funds for pork barrel projects.
We have been reading about this in national publications for over 40 years. Turn all of the below sea level land back into swamp, even a buyout would be cheaper then the cost of fighting the gulf and it's weather. Land scam developers need to be shut down. Some land should not built on and people who build and live on below sea level land in a hurricane area are too stupid to live, and certinily not be paid to rebuild on the site.
neworleansla2001,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy is it pay now or pay later for me, a taxpayer in Michigan. It seems to me that it should be the responsibility of the state and locality to protect their city and to recover from disaster. Why should the city's irresponsibility in maintaining areas below sea level be subsidized? If a tornado hits my house, it's just as devastating to me personally, but I won't see a dime from Louisiana taxpayers.
Is it possible thast the Corps doesn't see any way to provide the protection for the Gulf Coast? New Orleans can't be protected without protecting the rest of the area. The Corps wasn't asked if it was possible or reasonable to protect the coast, it was asked to propose a solution for the danger. The Corps found that different things were needed in different areas and that the fiscal costs along with the social, community and environmental costs were immense. The Corps is an engineering organization. Their authorization doesn ot cover political and social activities needed to bring about a total solution that will be sufficient to be working in 100 years.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSupose that the Corps had made the decisions on what was to be done to provide a comprehensive permanent solution for the whole area. It's unlikely that the local citizens, communities would sit still and simply accept the best planning available. How about the actual work? Is it possible that there will be a long line of contractors, suppliers and other folks involved int the ten thousand and one tasks being desired, to be totally, 100% interested because of the terrible needs of the folks living below storm sea level. Following the usual pattern a project of this magnitude will take a half century.
The Corps is sticking to the boundaries of it's power and responsibility. Since there is no single clear answer to the problem and since it has no legal authority to try to bring a lot of people into a single mindset The possibilities have been studied out and a list prepared. When the affected people know and understand the problems involved in applying any solution or set of solutions they must speak as one voice without any disagreement. When that agreement is accomplished the agencies and political entities will be responding with support and funding to Get The Job Done.
This isn't an engineering problem, it's a social and political problem. Is there a social and political entity that can give the Corps it's assignment, power and funding to do the job?
Another recent piece from a national publication is found at this link:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://enr.construction.com/opinions/blogs/bergeron.asp?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3adea82cb1-b2f7-406d-8ef4-51b89f2053c9Post%3a10db48e7-a3ae-409c-9690-a2959dd6b84e
That is a pretty naive statement to say that no competent engineer would work for the COE but rather work in a private Engineering Firm where the competency is higher. The COE's basic engineering is contracted out to PRIVATE ENGINEERING FIRMS who bid on General Design or Feature Designs of Engineering Projects, e.g., levees, dams, bridges, and civil and military construction projects. I have noted that some firms bid for the sake of bidding even though they lack the technical and engineering expertise to take on a large comprehensive project. And often they cry and pick up the telephone and checkbook to their congressman which does nothing for the taxpayers getting their money's worth. Indeed, it simply delays the job at hand while the haves/havemores attempt to get their fingers in the pot. Futhermore go to a few Engineering Schools and see where the graduates would love to start their career experience working for a top notch agency with a broad base and has been a participant in a variety of engineering projects all over the world since circa 1775. Thanks, Harold T. Sansing, Dunnellon, Florida.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs hurricane force winds and collision force storm surges are structural rated, shouldn.t any/all hurricane solutions center on structural improvements of buildings, roads, levees, bridges, piers, roads, power poles and lines, and underground power and energy piping?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA non-structural solution such as elevating buildings only puts the building and occupants in more danger from the hurricane winds!!
The dynamic physical forces of wind and moving water develops more actions on a building frame, oil reserve tank, telephone/power pole, than their structural performance capabilities can handle, and that is why roofs blow off, windows blow out, poles tip over, and tanks crinkle and collapse!! The wind and water forces do not impact the building interior first, they impact the exterior shells of the buildings, which fail, then destroys the interior walls, posts, beams, and cabinets, furniture, etc!!!
Since the building frames and power poles are structurallydesigned to repel objects and resist movement forces, (called static forces and loads), they do not contain mechanisms or systems to fight the dynamic forces with, unless these dynamic forces fighting mechanisms are added to the buildings and poles!!
This new reinforcing method has been developed, and because of what structural performances they add to building frames, etc; are better than just resistance assembly and reinforcing methods currently installed, these new reinforcing systems are more affordable! Called Structural Strap-Nets and Extensions, continuous steel strapping reinforcing takes the place of costly, labor-intense, and time consuming shear panel sheathing, midwall and diagonal bracing, post and beam metal strap-tie connectors, and many other structural products.
The developed dual-tributary and dual load-path, side by side, resistant and resilient combined structural frame system addresses both static and dynamic forces impacte on the structure frame, and handles them better, out performing any/all the buildings destroyed in hurricane Katrina and others!!!
This new technology should be forwarded to the Army Corps of Engineers, and all local Buildrs and Engineers in the area. The website referencing is called Tor-Eggs-Tor Design Solutions.
Move Inland!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is hard to believe how much of the population forgets that Katrina stretched from Texas to Florida, even hitting Florida twice!! The amount of damage and destruction is the single largest amount in U.S. history. This is an entire Gulf Coast Disaster!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWater, from storm surges and the levee breaches combined, destroyed more Real Estate Property, Buildings, Structures, Boats, and Vehicles than the past five years of war in Iraq and Afghanastan!! Windforces destroyed even more!!
So why hasn't the U.S. declared war on hurricanes?
Why does our Country just shrug their shoulders and say "Let's Rebuild"? Doesn't sound very rah-rah, does it?
How do we 'Kick-Butt' on hurricanes?
Easy, we improve the structural body-frames and body-shells of buildings to start with!! Lots of less work than rebuilding every destroyed home, school, hospital, fire station, church, office, warehouse, lail, prison, and parking garage!!
Remember, these are still assembled industrial products, manufactured or constructed onsite. No law against improving the way they perform in high winds, rolling water, floods, fires, and earthquakes, is there?
Why do current 'modern' buildings and structures fail to wind, water, shaking, and collisions in the first place? Simple, they are still designed and assembled as single-tributary and load-pathed body-frames and body-shells!! The same way they were designed and built in ancient times, some 4,000-10,000 years ago! Gotta be the oldest technology on the planet, along with the wheel and fire!!
Want to know how a building, vehicle, levee, bridge, etc; frame fights circulating wind and water dynamic forces, all-directional seismic and collision dynamic forces? Try this out: Grab your left foot with your right hand, behind your back, sticking your left hand up in the air as high as you can, and see how well you can run, walk, balance, lift or push away objects!!
Now put down your left hand and foot and see how much more you can do!! Thisis what is called Structural Performance; how much a structural body can do and resist, how much resilience there is, and so on.
Do you think that having two-tributaries is better than having one? Can you see/feel the benefits of dual and multiple tributary and load pathed structural frames, bodies, and shells?
This newly developed technology helps the Engineers and Builders improve the structural performabilities of their marketed products, our homes and cars.
Reference the Tor-Eggs-Tor Design Solutions website for more.
God Bless and Speed;
Randy
New Orleans Katrina, ref:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.issues.org/22.2/images/enlarged/sparks_f3.jpg
http://www.fas.org/irp/imint/docs/rst/Sect14/Sect14_10a.html
http://www.fas.org/irp/imint/docs/rst/Sect14/Sect14_10a.html
http://store.usgs.gov/mod/images/waterdepthposter_p.gif
"over half of New Orleans is above sea level"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisso over half of New Orleans is below sea level.
http://gnocdc.s3.amazonaws.com/maps/elevation.html
In one sentence, you say "by the end of the century". In the next, "in the not too distant future". Make up your mind! It gives us plenty of time to devise a better solution as our technology advances. Where do you live????
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