A rough reconstruction of the flooding based on anecdotal accounts,
interviews, and computer modeling, shows that the huge scale of the
overlapping floods – one fast, one slow – should have been clear to
some officials by mid-afternoon Monday, when city representatives
confirmed that the 17th Street canal floodwall had been breached.

At that point areas to the east were submerged from the earlier
flooding, trapping thousands, while gradually rising waters stretched
from the Lakefront across to Mid City and almost to the Central
Business District.

Federal officials have referred to the levee breaches as a separate
and much later event from the flooding to the east, and said that they
were unaware of the gravity of the problem until Tuesday, suggesting
valuable response time was lost.

“It was midday Tuesday that I became aware of the fact that there was
no possibility of plugging the (17th Street canal) gap and that
essentially the lake was going to start to drain into the city. I
think that second catastrophe really caught everybody by surprise,”
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Sunday, adding that
he believed the breach had occurred Monday night or Tuesday morning.
By that time, flooding from at least one of the two breached canals
already had been under way all day Monday, evidence shows.

Even on Tuesday, as still-rising waters covered most of New Orleans,
FEMA official Bill Lokey sounded a reassuring note in a Baton Rouge
briefing.

“I don't want to alarm everybody that, you know, New Orleans is
filling up like a bowl,” Lokey said. “That's just not happening.”

Once a levee or floodwall is breached by a hurricane storm surge,
engineers say, it often widens and cannot be quickly sealed. Storm
surge waters in Lake Pontchartrain may take a day or more to subside,
so they keep pouring into the city – most of which lies below sea
level – until the levels inside and outside the levee are equal.

Experts familiar with the hurricane risks in the New Orleans area said
they were stunned that no one had conveyed the information about the
breaches or made clear to upper-level officials the grave risk they
posed, or made an effort to warn residents about the threat after
storm winds subsided Monday afternoon.

“I’m shocked. I don’t understand why the response wasn’t
instantaneous,” said Louisiana State University geology professor Greg
Stone, who studies coastal storm surge dynamics.

“They should have been monitoring this and informed people all the way
to the top, (and) then they should have warned people,” said Ivor Van
Heerden, who uses computer models at the LSU Hurricane Center to study
storm surges and provided officials in the Louisiana Office of
Emergency Preparedness headquarters with data indicating the potential
for flooding that could result from Katrina.

www.nola.com

You have to admit though,cheney (DR.Marble and
cheney,Gulfport,Mississippi) does have a certain amout of decorum.
cuhulin

David wrote:

A rough reconstruction of the flooding based on anecdotal accounts,
interviews, and computer modeling, shows that the huge scale of the
overlapping floods – one fast, one slow – should have been clear to
some officials by mid-afternoon Monday, when city representatives
confirmed that the 17th Street canal floodwall had been breached.

At that point areas to the east were submerged from the earlier
flooding, trapping thousands, while gradually rising waters stretched
from the Lakefront across to Mid City and almost to the Central
Business District.

Federal officials have referred to the levee breaches as a separate
and much later event from the flooding to the east, and said that they
were unaware of the gravity of the problem until Tuesday, suggesting
valuable response time was lost.

“It was midday Tuesday that I became aware of the fact that there was
no possibility of plugging the (17th Street canal) gap and that
essentially the lake was going to start to drain into the city. I
think that second catastrophe really caught everybody by surprise,”
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Sunday, adding that
he believed the breach had occurred Monday night or Tuesday morning.
By that time, flooding from at least one of the two breached canals
already had been under way all day Monday, evidence shows.

Even on Tuesday, as still-rising waters covered most of New Orleans,
FEMA official Bill Lokey sounded a reassuring note in a Baton Rouge
briefing.

“I don't want to alarm everybody that, you know, New Orleans is
filling up like a bowl,” Lokey said. “That's just not happening.”

Once a levee or floodwall is breached by a hurricane storm surge,
engineers say, it often widens and cannot be quickly sealed. Storm
surge waters in Lake Pontchartrain may take a day or more to subside,
so they keep pouring into the city – most of which lies below sea
level – until the levels inside and outside the levee are equal.

Experts familiar with the hurricane risks in the New Orleans area said
they were stunned that no one had conveyed the information about the
breaches or made clear to upper-level officials the grave risk they
posed, or made an effort to warn residents about the threat after
storm winds subsided Monday afternoon.

“I’m shocked. I don’t understand why the response wasn’t
instantaneous,” said Louisiana State University geology professor Greg
Stone, who studies coastal storm surge dynamics.

“They should have been monitoring this and informed people all the way
to the top, (and) then they should have warned people,” said Ivor Van
Heerden, who uses computer models at the LSU Hurricane Center to study
storm surges and provided officials in the Louisiana Office of
Emergency Preparedness headquarters with data indicating the potential
for flooding that could result from Katrina.

Damn... it's becoming more and more apparent that the officials in Louisiana
really screwed up as the first line of defense.

dxAce
Michigan
USA

I have an old Popular Mechanics (it might be one of my old Popular
Science magazines,h..l,I don't remember which one it is) magazine around
here somewhere that dates back to the 1950's.The magazine has a big
article with pictures about Engineers shoreing up the Levees along the
Mississippi River.Great big steel cables fishnet design nets in the
Levees in the banks of the Mississippi River.Did Katrina really cause
those breaches in the New Orleans Levees? Convince me!,but I don't think
you can!
cuhulin

Roll the Dice! I will flat out say it right NOW! Katrina did NOT! cause
the New Orleans Levees breaches!
cuhulin

What is worse, is that Bush gave them MORE dike money than Clinton, but
Mayor Nagin spent it elsewhere!

Nagin's worse than any Mayor Daly....

On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 10:00:46 -0500, wrote:

You have to admit though,cheney (DR.Marble and
cheney,Gulfport,Mississippi) does have a certain amout of decorum.
cuhulin

Does decorum mean the same thing as gall?

On 11 Sep 2005 08:14:52 -0700, "
wrote:

What is worse, is that Bush gave them MORE dike money than Clinton, but
Mayor Nagin spent it elsewhere!

Nagin's worse than any Mayor Daly....

And for that the people deserve to be ingored for 4 days?

On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 11:08:01 -0400, dxAce
wrote:



Damn... it's becoming more and more apparent that the officials in Louisiana
really screwed up as the first line of defense.

dxAce
Michigan
USA


They acknowledged before the storm that they would be overwhelmed.
That was FEMA's job.

David wrote:

On 11 Sep 2005 08:14:52 -0700, "
wrote:

What is worse, is that Bush gave them MORE dike money than Clinton, but
Mayor Nagin spent it elsewhere!

Nagin's worse than any Mayor Daly....

And for that the people deserve to be ingored for 4 days?

Ignored? No one was being ignored, 'tard boy. Unless of course by ignored you
mean that each and every affected individual didn't instantaneously have a FEMA
official there to take them by the hand and lead them to safety.

LMAO at the 'tard yet again!

dxAce
Michigan
USA