New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. IV: Orleans East Bank (Metro) Protected Basin
This article is a reply.
VIEW THE ORIGINAL ARTICLEThis article has a reply.
VIEW THE REPLYThis article has a reply.
VIEW THE REPLYThis article has a reply.
VIEW THE REPLYPublication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 134, Issue 5
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.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The studies reported herein would not have been possible without the generous help of many individuals and organizations. A more detailed and extensive acknowledgement is presented in the first of the companion papers and for the sake of brevity is not repeated here. This project was supported, in large part, by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant Nos. NSFCMS-0413327 and NSFCMS-0611632. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF. Additional support was provided by the Center for Information Technology Research in the Service of Society (CITRIS) at the University of California at Berkeley. All of this support is gratefully acknowledged.
References
Briaud, J.-L., Chen, H. C., Govindasamy, A. V., and Storesund, R. (2008). “Levee erosion by overtopping in New Orleans during the Katrina Hurricane.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 134(5), 618–632.
Brinkgreve, R. (2007). “PLAXIS 2D. Version 8.5 finite-element code for soil and rock analyses.” Complete set of manuals, Balkema, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Independent Levee Investigation Team (ILIT). (2006). “Investigation of the performance of the New Orleans regional flood protection systems during Hurricane Katrina.” Final Rep., ⟨http://www.ce.berkeley.edu/~new-orleans/⟩, July 31, 2006 (Rev. Sept. 10).
Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET). (2006). “Performance evaluation of the New Orleans and southwest Louisiana Hurricane protection system.” Draft Final Rep., ⟨https://ipet.wes.army.mil/⟩ (June 1, 2006).
Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET). (2007). “Performance evaluation of the New Orleans and southwest Louisiana hurricane protection system.” Final Rep., https://ipet.wes.army.mil/ (November).
Jackson, R. B. (1988). “E99 sheet pile wall field load test report.” Technical Rep. No. 1, U.S. Army Engineer Division, Lower Mississippi Valley, Vicksburg, Miss.
Krahn, J. (2004). “SLOPE/W.” Complete set of manuals, GEO-SLOPE/W International Ltd., Calgary, Alta., Canada.
Ladd, C. C., and Foott, R. (1974). “A new design procedure for stability of soft clays.” J. Geotech. Engrg. Div., 100(GT7), 763–786.
Leavall, D. A., Peters, J. F., Edris, E. V., and Holmes, T. L. (1989). “Development of finite-element-based design procedure for sheet-pile walls.” Technical Rep. No. GL-89-14, USACOE, Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg, Miss.
Olsen, R. S., and Farr, J. V. (1986). “Site characterization using the cone penetrometer test.” Proc., INSITU ’86, ASCE Special Conf. on Use of In Situ Testing in Geotechnical Engineering, Geotechnical Special Publication No. 6, 854–868.
Oner, M., Dawkins, W. P., Hallal, I., and Lai, C. C. (1988). “Development of a new method for soil structure interaction analysis of floodwalls.” Rep. Presented to U.S.A.E. Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg, Miss.
Oner, M., Dawkins, W. P., and Mosher, R. (1997a). “Shear ring method for soil-structure interaction analysis in floodwalls.” Electron. J. Geotech. Eng., ⟨http://www/ejge.com/index_ejge.ntm⟩.
Oner, M., Dawkins, W. P., Mosher, R., and Hallal, I. (1997b). “Soil-structure interaction effects in floodwalls.” Electron. J. Geotech. Eng., ⟨http://www/ejge.com/index_ejge.ntm⟩.
Robertson, R. K., and Campanella, R. G. (1983). “Interpretation of cone penetration tests: I. Sand.” Can. Geotech. J., 20(4), 718–733.
Rogers, J. D., Boutwell, G. P., Schmitz, D. W., Karadeniz, D., Watkins, C. M., Athanasopoulos-Zekkos, A., and Cobos-Roa, D. (2008). “Geologic conditions underlying the 2005 17th Street canal levee failure in New Orleans.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 134(5), 583–601.
Seed, R. B. (2005). “CE270B—Advanced foundation engineering class notes.” Univ. of California, Berkeley, Calif.
Seed, R. B., Bea, R. G., Abdelmalak, R. I., Athanasopoulos-Zekkos, A., Boutwell, G. P., Briaud, J.-L., Cheung, C., Cobos-Roa, D., Ehrensing, L., Govindasamy, A. V., Harder, L. F., Inkabi, K. S., Nicks, J., Pestana, J. M., Porter, J., Rhee, K., Riemer, M. F., Rogers, J. D., Storesund, R., Vera-Grunauer, X., and Wartman, J. (2008a). “New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. I: Introduction, overview, and the East Flank.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 134(5), 701–717.
Seed, R. B., Bea, R. G., Athanasopoulos-Zekkos, A., Boutwell, G. P., Bray, J. D., Cheung, C., Cobos-Roa, D., Ehrensing, L., Harder, L. F., Pestana, J. M., Riemer, M. F., Rogers, J. D., Storesund, R., Vera-Grunauer, X., and Wartman, J. (2008b). “New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. II: The central region and the Lower Ninth Ward.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 134(5), 718–739.
Seed, R. B., Bea, R. G., Athanasopoulos-Zekkos, A., Boutwell, G. P., Bray, J. D., Cheung, C., Cobos-Roa, D., Harder, L. F., Moss, R. E. S., Pestana, J. M., Porter, J., Riemer, M. F., Rogers, J. D., Storesund, R., Vera-Grunauer, X., and Wartman, J. (2008c). New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. III: The 17th Street drainage canal.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 134(5), 740–761.
Spencer, E. (1967). “A method of analysis of the stability of embankments assuming parallel inter-slice forces.” Geotechnique, 17(1), 11–26.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). (1988). “Orleans Avenue outfall canal.” Design Memorandum No. 19, General Design, Vols. 1–3, Louisiana, Dept. of the Army, New Orleans District, Corps of Engineers, New Orleans.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). (1989). “London Avenue outfall canal.” Design Memorandum No. 19A, General Design, Vols. 1 and 2, Louisiana, Dept. of the Army, New Orleans District, Corps of Engineers, New Orleans.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). (1990). “Orleans Parish (Jefferson Parish). 17th St. outfall canal, Metairie relief.” Design Memorandum No. 20, General Design, Vols. 1 and 2, Louisiana, Dept. of the Army, New Orleans District, Corps of Engineers, New Orleans.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). (2000). “Engineering and design—Design and construction of levees.” EM 1110-2-1913, April 30, 2000, Washington, D.C.
U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (2006). “Hurricane Katrina: A nation still unprepared.” U.S. Senate Rep. No. 109-322, Washington, D.C.
Van Heerden, I. L., Kemp, G. P., Mashriqui, H., Sharma, R., Prochaska, B., Capozzoli, L., Theis, A., Binselam, A., Streva, K., and Boyd, E. (2006). “The failure of the New Orleans levee system during Hurricane Katrina.” State Project No. 704-92-0022, 20, ⟨http://www.publichealth.hurricane.lsu.edu/TeamLA.htm⟩.
Wooley, D., and Shabman, L. (2007). “Decision making chronology for the Lake Pontchartrain & vicinity Hurricane protection project.” Draft Final Rep. for the Headquarters, USACE, Submitted to the Institute for Water Resources of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, ⟨http://www.iwr.usace.army.mil/inside/products/pub/hpdc/DraftFinalHPDC3.pdf. June 2007⟩.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 134 • Issue 5 • May 2008
Pages: 762 - 779
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: May 14, 2007
Accepted: Jan 25, 2008
Published online: May 1, 2008
Published in print: May 2008
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.