The city plans to use a different approach to tackle its longstanding flood problems. Beau Evans reports on efforts in New Orleans to address flood threats by shifting away from pumping water to retaining it.
New Orleans is battling flash flooding and is in a state of emergency, on hurricane watch, as the city prepares for its biggest test since the catastrophic failure of the city’s flood protection levees during the deadly Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the city when 80% of it was flooded in 2005.
Photograph: David Grunfeld/AP New Orleans is battling flash flooding and is in a state of emergency, on hurricane watch, as the city prepares for its biggest test since the catastrophic failure of the city’s flood protection levees during the deadly Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the city when 80% of it was flooded in 2005.
The National Weather Service said New Orleans is protected to a river level of 20ft (6.1 meters), the same level that it is now forecasting the river to reach by Friday. That would mark the highest river level at New Orleans in nearly 70 years. The river levels in Louisiana have been high for months due to flooding further upriver in the midwest.
perhaps longer.” Did you know? During the past century, hurricanes have flooded New Orleans six times: in 1915, 1940, 1947, 1965, 1969 and 2005.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pumped the last of the floodwaters out of the city on October 11, 2005, some 43 days after Katrina made landfall. Ultimately, the storm caused more than $160 billion in damage, and the population of New Orleans fell by 29 percent between the fall of 2005 and 2011.
The failures of levees and flood walls during Katrina are considered by experts to be the worst engineering disaster in the history of the United States. By August 31, 2005, 80% of New Orleans was flooded, with some parts under 15 feet (4.6 m) of water.
Breaches in the system of levees and floodwalls left 80 percent of the city underwater. Breaches in the system of levees and floodwalls left 80 percent of the city underwater. By the time Hurricane Katrina made landfall near Buras, Louisiana early on the morning of August 29, 2005, the flooding had already begun.
The rate at which the coastline is diminishing is about thirty-four square miles per year, and if it continues another 700 square miles will be lost within the next forty years. This in turn means thirty-three miles of land will be underwater by 2040, including several towns and Louisiana's largest city, New Orleans.
Flood Duration Data (1927 - Present)RankDuration (Days)Year12262018-2019215219273951973494199417 more rows
2016 Louisiana floodsThe 21 Louisiana parishes that were designated as federal disaster areas by FEMA in the aftermath of the floods.DateAugust 12, 2016–August 22, 2016LocationMost of southern Louisiana, United StatesDeaths60Property damage$10–15 billion
A federal judge in New Orleans ruled in 2009 that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' failure to properly maintain and operate the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet was a significant cause of the catastrophic flooding during Katrina. Levee failures near Lake Pontchartrain also flooded New Orleans neighborhoods.
New Orleans is a city more vulnerable than most when it comes to storm surges. There are two main reasons for this. The first reason is New Orleans' low elevation in relation to sea level, the second reason is the lack of nature's best defense against a storm surge; wetlands and barrier islands.
two and a half weeksThe floods that buried up to 80 percent of New Orleans had noticeably subsided by September 15, 2005, when the top image was taken by the Landsat 7 satellite. In the two and a half weeks that had passed since Hurricane Katrina flooded the city, pumps had been working nonstop to return the water to Lake Pontchartrain.
The hurricane's 19-foot storm surge broke through the city's flood walls and the levees. The failure of New Orleans's flood-protection system was blamed on engineering flaws. Foundations of flood walls did not extend deep enough in the ground to support the force of the floodwater.
Louisiana was hit by 49 of the 273 hurricanes that made landfall on the American Atlantic Coast between 1851 and 2004. In addition, eighteen of the ninety-two major hurricanes with Saffir-Simpson ratings of category 3 or above have struck the state (U.S. mainland hurricane strikes by state, 1851-2004).
New Orleans becomes America's number-one seaport in total tonnage handled. 1995. Twenty inches of rain fall in a single day, causing seven deaths and $1 billion in damage across three parishes. With an average rainfall of 58 inches, New Orleans is one of the rainiest cities in the U.S.
1893. A day-long assault of 30-foot waves overtops coastal levees and destroys a fishing village south of New Orleans, killing 1,500 people. 1920. New Orleans is now the 14th-largest U.S. city, with a population approaching 400,000.
The act authorizes the building of a spillway at Bonnet Carré near Lake Pontchartrain to shunt floodwaters away from New Orleans and into undeveloped areas.
The Army Corps of Engineers finishes connecting New Orleans to the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, a 1,300-mile canal stretching from Texas to Florida. During Hurricane Katrina in 2005, this waterway will unfortunately provide a direct route for storm surge into eastern New Orleans. 1927.
By 1726, the levee remains incomplete, though a section fully 18 feet tall stands before the Place d'Armes (now Jackson Square) in the heart of the nascent town. After New Orleans floods in 1731, the town's Superior Council mandates that all settlers along the river nearby build levees.
1965#N#Hurricane Betsy sideswipes New Orleans, killing several dozen and becoming the first storm to cause more than $1 billion in damage. Four parishes sustain significant flooding. "God, it was like one giant swimming pool as far as the eye could see," one resident of Chalmette recalled. "A woman who lives down the block floated past me, with her two children beside her."
1969. From 1559 to 1969, 160 recorded hurricanes struck Louisiana, an average of one hurricane every two and a half years. With the state's and New Orleans' vulnerability to hurricanes in mind, as exemplified by Betsy, the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1960s develops its first hurricane-protection plan for the city and state. 1973.
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