With thousands feared dead and damage estimates of up to $44 billion, hurricane Katrina has left more destruction in its wake than any natural disaster in U.S. history. Hurricane Andrew, by comparison, took 23 lives and caused 26 billion dollars in damage when it hit southern Florida in 1992. Some UW scientists suggest that Katrina's heavy toll on New Orleans could have been reduced if the levees had been better constructed.
\Katrina came and went, and the big headline Monday morning was 'New Orleans in the clear'. Later that afternoon was when the real destruction began"", said Jon Martin, professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at UW-Madison. He added that the damage would have been much less severe if the levees had withstood Katrina.
""Most of the damage from Hurricane Andrew was wind damage. Katrina's wind damage consisted of downed power lines and trees, and shingles ripped from the roofs of homes. But by far the most destruction was from the storm surge and subsequent flooding,"" said Michael Morgan, professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at UW-Madison.
Katrina's massive 35-foot storm surge swept inland up to ten miles and wreaked havoc on coastal cities. Waveland, Miss., a town of 7,000 people, was nearly wiped off the map. Only a few badly damaged buildings were left standing.
Further west, levees designed to keep water from spilling in to New Orleans failed, releasing a torrent of water that soon flooded 80 percent of the city. To make matters worse, 22 pumping stations specially built to handle floodwaters became inoperable soon after the inundation.
New Orleans has 350 miles of levees; all it took to flood much of the downtown area was a breach in the 17th Street Canal floodwall a mere two blocks long.
According to the National Weather Service in Slidell, MS, this breach, along with three others, is believed to have happened when excess water in Lake Pontchartrain from the storm surge overtopped and then broke through the levees.
Since the levees were breached, food, clean water, landline phones and electricity are at a premium. While concrete buildings left standing can be stripped bare and salvaged, wooden homes, making up most of the city's housing, will be subject to mold, mildew and collapse. Ultimately, whatever houses were left standing in flooded areas may need to be torn down.
Despite the destruction, the disaster was not unforeseen. In July 2004, federal, state and local officials took part in a simulated drill in which a category three hurricane named ""Pam"" strikes New Orleans with winds of 120 miles per hour (along with a storm surge that overtopped its system of levees). In the simulation, Pam breached the city's levees and allowed water from Lake Pontchartrain to flood the metropolis, stranding thousands of residents. The study concluded that New Orleans was ill-prepared to handle a hurricane stronger than category three.
Despite these results, additional steps to secure the city could not fully implemented by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to corps documents.
The corps, in charge of building and repairing levees in the New Orleans area, did not receive the resources it needed for 2005 to fund levee improvements and hurricane protection projects around the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain.
Instead, maximum funding was allocated towards projects with the highest cost-to-benefit ratios, meaning areas of high commercial transportation. Also, plans that were near completion received fiscal priority. Neither of these criteria fit levee improvements.
The budget cuts forced the corps to suspend seven contracts, including one focused on the strengthening of the 17th Street Canal, where one of the breaches during Katrina occurred. Although sections of that levee had been raised and widened in 2004, parts of the floodwall remained 4 feet lower, leaving them vulnerable.
Despite the conjecture about how better constructed levees would have prevented some of the damage, some UW scientists still question whether or not they would have made a difference.
