Beyond Katrina

Engineers Faulted on Hurricane System

The New York Times: Asked to explain its failure to protect New Orleans from flooding, the Army Corps of Engineers produced an answer yesterday: Bit by bit over some 50 years, the corps made a series of decisions based largely on dollars, politics and scheduling that inadvertently left the city’s hurricane protection system substantially weaker than it should have been. Continue here.

Hurricane Katrina revisited: a book review of The Storm

Dr. Jeff Masters at Weather Underground reviews The Storm: What went wrong and why during Hurricane Katrina--the inside story from one Louisiana scientist here. The book was penned by the straight shooting and controversial Dr. Ivor van Heerden of Louisiana State University's Hurricane Center. I like the guy.  I believe he's going to keep at it until those levees are at Cat 5 protection.  Masters does a great job on the review. Check out his post!

Margaret Saizan

Drowning New Orleans: The Original 2001 Scientific American Article

In 2001 an article appeared in Scientific American which correctly predicted what would happen to New Orleans in the event of a direct hurricane hit.  That direct hit still hasn't happened as Katrina went thirty miles east of the city. Even still, many of the predictions came true in spite of the fact that Katrina was only a Category 3 hurricane at landfall, and in spite of the fact that New Orleans was spared a direct hit. The article, Drowning New Orleans is still timely then. For a snapshot look at New Orleans' geophysical challenges and why it is still a vulnerable city, the article puts the complex issues in a nutshell.  My intention in revisiting the Scientific American article is not to paint a picture of doom, but hopefully to spur activism. You can read the article here.

Tags: [New Orleans], [New Orleans geophysical challenges], [New Orleans hurricane vulnerability]