Re: Monday Morning Quarterbacking

On Wed, 07 Sep 2005 17:44:16 GMT, don'tgo@xxxxxxxxx (The
Watcher) wrote:

(snips)

>>Given the geography of the area, the storm surge itself
>>couldn't have damaged New Orleans unless it pushed the lake
>>over its levees. It was the damage to the levees that
>>caused the flooding in New Orleans, not the storm surge
>>itself.
>
>If you look at the geography of the area, you might notice something odd. The
>levees that failed are on the north and east side of the city. That was the
>point I was making. Did YOU know the flooding was going to come from the lake
>this time instead of from the storm surge from the gulf?

On the 28th, the day before the hurricane hit, I wrote,

According to the news, the big problem is Lake Ponchartrain
(sp?). If the storm continues on its present course, the
northeast quadrant, the most dangerous for storm surge, will
drive the lake waters over the levee and into NO (which is
lower than the lake on the one side and the river on the
other), perhaps taking down the levee. Then NO will be
under water, with no way to pump out the water, since they
pump the water INTO the lake. My daughter and SIL were in
NO during a heavy (but normal) downpour. They described the
water shooting UP out of the storm drains, as the pumps
couldn't keep up with the rain.

This has been a worst case scenario for NO for as long as I
can remember reading about NO's risk to a major hurricane.
When you get right down to it, NO can't survive a direct hit
from a Cat 5 hurricane. Now they have one headed right at
them.

> Nobody else did.

I did. Given the geography, it is extremely unlikely that
there would be a significant storm surge from the south,
since New Orleans is about 35 miles north of Barataria Bay
and about 55 miles north of Timbalier Bay. It's about 35
miles northeast of Breton Sound. It's about 5 feet from
Lake Pontchartrain. So that's where a dangerous storm surge
must come from - the north, not the south or southeast.

> The
>reason they have those levees on the north side of the city instead of the south
>is because of the annual spring floods which threaten New Orleans(and the rest
>of Louisiana).

They have a levee on the north side to keep out the lake AND
the south side to keep out the river. I don't know about
the west side, which is presumably higher. I ASSUME they
have levees to the east to keep out the swamps, but I don't
know about that either. I'm sure someone more familiar with
New Orleans could tell us.

(rest snipped)

--
Robert Sturgeon
Summum ius summa inuria.
http://www.vistech.net/users/rsturge/
.

Relevant Pages

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