New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. IV: Orleans East Bank (Metro) Protected Basin
Abstract
This paper addresses damage caused by Hurricane Katrina to the main Orleans East Bank protected basin. This basin represented the heart of New Orleans, and contained the main downtown area, the historic French Quarter, the Garden District, and the sprawling Lakefront and Canal Districts. Nearly half of the loss of life during this hurricane, and a similar fraction of the overall damages, occurred in this heavily populated basin. There are a number of important geotechnical lessons, as well as geo-forensic lessons, associated with the flooding of this basin. These include the difficulties associated with the creation and operation of regional-scale flood protection systems requiring federal and local cooperation and funding over prolonged periods of time. There are also a number of engineering and policy lessons regarding (1) the accuracy and reliability of current analytical methods; (2) the shortcomings and potential dangers involved in decisions that reduced short-term capital outlays in exchange for increased risk of potential system failures; (3) the difficulties associated with integrating local issues with a flood risk reduction project; and (4) the need to design and maintain levees as systems; with each of the many individual project elements being required to mesh seamlessly. These lessons are of interest and importance for similar flood protection systems throughout numerous other regions of the United States and the world.
Recommended Citation
R. B. Seed and R. Bea and A. Athanasopoulos-Zekkos and G. P. Boutwell and J. D. Bray and C. Cheung and D. A. Cobos-Roa and J. Cohen-Waeber and B. D. Collins and L. F. Harder and R. E. Kayen and J. M. Pestana and M. F. Riemer and J. D. Rogers and R. Storesund and X. Vera-Grunauer and J. Wartman, "New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. IV: Orleans East Bank (Metro) Protected Basin," Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, vol. 134, no. 5, pp. 762 - 779, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), May 2008.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)1090-0241(2008)134:5(762)
Department(s)
Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering
Sponsor(s)
National Science Foundation (U.S.)
University of California (System)
Keywords and Phrases
Louisiana; Flood damage; Hurricane effects; Levees; Public policy; Risk assessment; Potential system failures; River basin projects; analytical method; failure analysis; flood control; Hurricane Katrina 2005; levee; storm damage; New Orleans; North America; United States
Geographic Coverage
New Orleans, Louisiana
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
1090-0241
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2008 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 May 2008
