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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New Levees Cannot Fully Eliminate Risk of Flooding for New Orleans
New Orleans, La., Aug. 30, 2005 - Cars parked on the New Orleans streets are flooded to the top of the wheel wells in this ground level photograph. New Orleans was under a mandatory evacuation order as a result of flooding caused by hurricane Katrina. (Marty Bahamonde/FEMA)
Levees and floodwalls surrounding New Orleans — no matter how large or sturdy — cannot provide absolute protection against overtopping or failure in extreme events, says a new report by the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council. The voluntary relocation of people and neighborhoods from areas that are vulnerable to flooding should be considered as a viable public policy option, the report says. If relocation is not feasible, an alternative would be to elevate the first floor of buildings to at least the 100-year flood level.
The report is the fifth and final one to provide recommendations to the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET), formed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to examine why New Orleans’ hurricane-protection system failed during Hurricane Katrina and how it can be strengthened. The previous four reports by the NAE and Research Council examined various draft volumes of the IPET. This report reviews the 7,500-page IPET draft final report, reflects upon the lessons learned from Katrina, and offers advice for how to improve the hurricane-protection system in the New Orleans area. (more…)
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