New Orleans still vulnerable to floods, say army engineers
Friday, 22 June 2007
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After nearly two years of work fixing New Orleans' flood protection network in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Army Corps of Engineers has revealed that significant areas of the city remain vulnerable to inundation in the event of another large storm. In the first survey of its kind, the corps has offered residents - and insurance companies - an assessment of flood risk on a block-by-block basis.
While some areas are less prone to flooding because of the $1bn (£500m) already spent on rebuilding levees and floodgates, others are not, even in the event of a storm much weaker than Katrina. "What we're doing here is showing people what the magnitude of the risk is," the corps' chief engineer, Lt-Gen Robert Van Antwerp, said. "The whole purpose of providing this information is so people can make a personal decision."
The distribution of risk is also illustrated in a detailed map provided by the corps on a special website. It shows that many districts that became inundated after Katrina, an exceptional storm that left 1,700 people dead, should now be better protected in the event of a storm of similar scale.
The city-wide assessments should improve further, meanwhile, after 2011 when the programme of reinforcing some 350 miles of levees is scheduled to be completed, the report says.
The survey is certain to give pause to the residents still rebuilding homes in areas highlighted as vulnerable to flooding. If a so-called 1-in-100 storm were to hit today - Katrina was much more powerful, rated as a 1-in-400 storm - they would receive eight feet of water. They include areas in the north of the city near Lake Pontchartrain and the Ninth Ward.
The report and computer-model maps should help the city in pursuing its much-stalled reconstruction programme, as well as to residents who must decide what gamble they will take in rebuilding homes.
"The real issue is going to be: are the local people going to look at these maps and believe them?" said Donald Powell, who is the head of Gulf Coast reconstruction for the Bush administration. "And if they trust the maps, will they act upon the information?"
