Scott Jennings
Violent Weather
70867-FA-15
Why is New Orleans so Vulnerable? Early morning of August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States. When the storm reached land, it had a Category 3 rating on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale bringing winds of 100–140 miles per hour. The Hurricane ran some 400 miles across. Hundreds of thousands of families in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama lost their homes, and experts estimate that Katrina caused more than $100 billion in damage. By the time Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, it had already been pouring…
When New Orleans was being constructed they ran out of good land. Engineers drained swamplands to make more room around the area so they could continue expansion. The drainage of the swamplands resulted in Subsidence which is sinking or settling to a lower level. In New Orleans case, it was the earth’s surface sinking below sea level. Because of this, present day New Orleans is on average, six feet below sea level. Following this problem is the construction and placement of levees. New Orleans sits between the levees along the Mississippi River, and those around Lake Pontchartrain. This predicament leaves New Orleans in a “bowl” effect. Due to this unfortunate effect, once water floods into the city, it is extremely difficult to get it…
Metro New Orleans approaches the busiest period of the hurricane season with the best flood control system of any coastal community in the United States: A billion network of levees, floodwalls and pumps that could eliminate flooding for a possible 100-years and exponentially reduce flooding from much larger hurricanes. But that system has limits, experts say. The city’s natural defenses, barrier islands and wetlands that once gave it many surge-absorbing marshes, have never been as decimated. That’s why experts are requesting civilians and families to respect the remaining storm risk as the area enters the six-week window, peaking Sept. 10. The massive system includes near-complete protection from flooding from so-called “100-year storm surge event”, one with a 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year. The new and improved levees also provide a significant reduction in flooding from the much more damaging 500-year surge event, larger than Hurricane Katrina, according to advanced computer engineering by the U.S. Army Corps of…