http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9145473/ Levee repair work has yet to begin Federal engineers said Wednesday that water from Lake Pontchartrain has stopped pouring into New Orleans over hurricane-damaged levees but acknowledged nothing has been done so far to fill the mammoth breaches. And, while insisting they are not acting in desperation, they announced plans to intentionally breach other levees in the city to drain some of the floodwaters. In an afternoon conference call, a half-dozen officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers provided the first official damage assessments and repair plans since the levees ruptured under the massive storm surge from Katrina. “At this point in time, we believe that the flow into the city is not happening,” said Walter Baumy Jr., the Corps’ chief engineer for the New Orleans district. Observations earlier Wednesday found Pontchartrain to be about 3.2 feet above sea level and receding toward its normal 1.5 feet above sea level, Baumy said, equalizing pressure between the lake and the flooded tracts of the city, much of which lies below sea level. That marked a great improvement over the previous 24 hours when the lake crested some feet higher and dumped millions of gallons over the 25-year-old levee at 17th Street and other flood walls, inundating dozens of neighborhoods after residents thought they had escaped the worst of Katrina’s fury. But Baumy and his colleagues acknowledged, despite media reports to the contrary, that not a single shovel of sand or other fill material had yet been dumped into the 17th Street breach. Greg Breerwood, a Corps deputy district engineer from New Orleans, said officials were hoping repair work would begin later Wednesday with Army Chinook helicopters dropping 15,000-pound bags of sand into the 300-foot wide break in the levee. “We have a few of them on the ground now, trying to get them hooked up to the bags,” Breerwood said. About 200 bags already had been filled with “sand, gravel, pea gravel, anything we can grab,” Baumy said. “We’ll just continue to drop bags as long as it takes.” “We have not done this before,” Breerwood said. “We are looking at any option available to stop this breach. Our goal is just to get as much into the breach as fast as possible.” Ironically, as they were plotting to repair the 17th Street levee and more breaches to the east, Corp officials were saying that they’d need to intentionally rupture levees elsewhere in the New Orleans area to drain water behind them that is standing higher than lake level. “Three obvious areas need to be breached in my opinion,” Baumy said, in Orleans, St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes. He said heavy equipment would be used to create 100- to 200-foot wide gaps in levees in those areas, let the water out and then restore them. But there was no timetable on when that work would begin. “We have to get a contractor on board for that,” Baumy said, or find available military or Corps resources. “Whatever we can get there quickest.” _______________________________________________ IMO, it would have been more beneficial for more people to concentrate on filling the levee breach instead of picking off 10 people at a time from rooftops. If they could have closed the breach, then all the people could be rescued in a day or two as the water receded. Apparently, now they are trying to make a damn using an existing bridge across the canal closer to Lake Pontchartrain to stop the water, thus allowinf them to make repairs to the breach. My question is, WHERE WERE THESE IDEAS YESTERDAY??? WHY WAS THERE SUCH A DELAY IN COMING UP WITH IDEAS TO STOP THE FLOW OF WATER INTO THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS???
Blanco said that they are still dumping Sand bags and theres a barge filled with rocks on the way to combine with the sand.
they stated earlier that they didn't have enough straps for the sandbags since with something that heavy the straps have to be dropped as well. they were to acquire 260+ today and in the process continue to fill the huge bags. given that the levee breaking was the worst case scenario, you woulda thought this would have been addressed immediately. also, they said they were going to use a barge to try and slow down the water inflow at 17th canal since its close to 300 yards.
Even if they managed to fix the floodwall, the water already in the city would not recede. It would have to be pumped out, which will take weeks. My point is ... fixing the floodwall has nothing to do with rescuing people from rooftops. Those people on rooftops can't stay there for weeks waiting for the water to go down. I can only imagine what people would be saying if we let people die on the rooftops while all our resources went to fixing the floodwall. There needs to be balance.
Someone please help me in my ignorance, but I am not that familiar with the NOLA drainage plan. When I see pictures of the breach, I am confused. It looks to me like the water is flowing into the canal. If you look at the pictures, the rapids denoting the downstream side of the water flow are on the opposite side of the wall from the neighborhood houses. That would seem to indicate that the water is flowing away from the flooded neighborhoods already. Is the Industrial Canal higher? Is water flowing from one breach toward the other? Am I wrong about the water flow? Am I wrong about my geography? Thanks for any help. Our prayers go out to everyone involved. Thorny
When the levee in question (17th Street) breached a couple of nights ago, most of the city in that area wasn't flooded to the depths they are now. East NO and St. Bernard Parish were already flooded but if they made a greater (or any effort at all) to close the breach, much more of the city would be dry today - meaning less refugees and less people still needing rescue.
Dunno if you saw the footage I am about to refer to, but if so, the news briefly had the breaches mixed up... the one that looked like it was flowing back to the canal was the breach @ the industrial canal in the 9th Ward. For a while today they (WAFB) were showing that break and saying it was the 17th street canal....
I thought the same thing. The 17th Street Canal runs North-South. If the bridge is in the lower part of the picture then the flow is to the left, or into the city. After the flow passes the levee, there is a shallow portion which causes the "rapids" looking flow. That's where they ought to be dumping the sandbags.
I understand what you are saying. I'm sure there will be much debate about what happened when this is over. It does seem as though there were no real plans to handle a breach. Before the hurricane hit, all the concern was about the water going over the floodwall, not through it.
I am begining to think that they are not gonna fix the breech. Main reason it will be quicker and easier to pump out the water if they allow it flow back out through the breech back into the lake. If in fact that the level of the lake has dropped enough to stop the incoming flood of water then there is no reason fix the breech. Why work aganist nature when by using the breech they might be ablt to cut a week or two out of pumping.
