Homeland Security’s Levee PLUGS Pass a Second Test
DHS S&T has funded a new technology for quickly sealing breaches when levees fail: the PLUG. (Paul Wedig, DHS S&T)
It’s a mean old levee, cause me to weep and moan
It’s a mean old levee, cause me to weep and moan
Gonna leave my baby, and my happy home
The lyrics to the 1929 blues classic “When the Levee Breaks” (the original recording can be found on the web) refer to the cataclysmic flood that began when heavy rains pounded the central basin of the Mississippi River in summer 1926. Swollen to capacity, the Mississippi broke out of its levee system in 145 places, flooding 17 million acres, and affecting an area the size of New England. Nearly a million people were displaced.
The levee failures in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina are, of course, fresher in the American mind.
If it keeps on rainin’, levee’s goin’ to break
If it keeps on rainin’, levee’s goin’ to break
And the water gonna come in, have no place to stay
Aaron Neville’s song, Louisiana 1927, sung by Randy Newman, was also about the 1926-1927 tragedy, and it became the theme song of the Katrina/Rita disaster.
The challenge is to change that tune: to develop the technology to quickly seal a levee breach and reduce floodwaters through the opening within four to six hours of detection—before the water can do major damage. (more…)
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