Levees

For those of you who are so inclined, the Times-Picayune has posted a map highlighting where the weak points are in New Orleans’ not-yet-completed post-Katrina improvements to its storm surge defenses.

Despite my prior post…perhaps someone has learned something from the aftermath of Katrina.

Friday, the Courant ran a story discussing the release of new FEMA flood zone maps for Hartford County, Connecticut.  The article contained this observation:

FEMA is also looking at levees more closely than ever. For Hartford and East Hartford, that means that areas behind the Connecticut River levees, once deemed to be at no risk of flooding, are now considered low- to moderate-risk flood zones. The federal government doesn’t require flood insurance in these areas — but FEMA is recommending it, and a private lender could require it.

For Hartford, the new zone covers 20 percent of the city’s land area — generally South Meadows, North Meadows and the eastern portion of downtown, from Columbus Boulevard to the river. In East Hartford, the new zone takes in a good deal of the town, from Green Terrace to the north, west though Great River Park and Commerce Center, east to Main Street and the area behind town hall, and finally out to Brewer Street in the southeast, Town Engineer Nick Casparino said.

This is the case even though the levees on both sides of the river are provisionally certified by the feds and millions of dollars in repairs have been made. The levees are on track for permanent certification by the Army Corps of Engineers — in July 2009 for Hartford, and March 2010 for East Hartford.

On the old maps, there’s no indication that the areas were protected by levees or in any danger of flooding; now, said Hartford City Engineer John McGrane, the draft maps show a zone emanating from the river called "shaded area X."

That new delineation, McGrane said, suggests that FEMA doesn’t fully trust levees anymore. He said the federal government used to assume levees built by the Army Corps of Engineers were infallible. Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005 blew that assumption away.

Those of you interested in where your property lies with regard to official flood zones may wish to visit FEMA’s online mapping service here.

In the words of George Santayana:

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Seen at MSNBC:

In a yearlong review of levee work here, The Associated Press has tracked a pattern of public misperception, political jockeying and legal fighting, along with economic and engineering miscalculations since Katrina, that threaten to make New Orleans the scene of another devastating flood.

Dozens of interviews with engineers, historians, policymakers and flood zone residents confirmed many have not learned from public policy mistakes made after Hurricane Betsy in 1965, which set the stage for Katrina; many mistakes are being repeated.

The article moves on from there, pointing out that while there are some very promising trends, much of the levee reconstruction work is reminiscent of the work that was promised after Betsy, the prior storm to breach New Orleans levees – where overly ambitious promises were made and political will and public interest waned…until Katrina reminded everybody of the hazards of having a major metropolis existing below sea level so close to the coast.

I’m on a business trip in South Texas, just in time to experience the joy of Hurricane Dolly.

Naturally, there are all sorts of stories in local media hyping the breeziness of the day.  For example, consider this ABC report:

Cities and counties in the Rio Grande valley were preparing Tuesday night as officials feared heavy rains could cause massive flooding and levee breaks.

Texas officials urged residents to move away from the Rio Grande levees because if Dolly continues to follow the same path as 1967’s Hurricane Beulah, "the levees are not going to hold that much water," said Cameron County Emergency Management Coordinator Johnny Cavazos.

So, it’s been almost three years since Katrina..and we aren’t being a bit more proactive about levees and storms?

Let’s see, it was almost 3 years ago that Joe Average American learned about the plight of American levees in the Great Flood of New Orleans in the wake of Katrina.

Have we learned anything about the importance of planning for catastrophic situations when it comes to American levee systems?

Seen at the Wall Street Journal (subscriber link):

The federal government predicts that 27 levees could potentially overflow along the river if the weather forecast is on the mark and a massive sandbagging effort fails to raise the level of the levees, according to a map obtained Monday by the Associated Press.

True, this year’s flooding is unprecedented in the afflicted areas.  However, you begin to wonder if some more thought needs to be given to flood modeling in disaster planning.

Buried in the news about the ongoing Midwest flooding, however, is also this gem from ABC:

Despite a massive effort to repair and upgrade flood defenses since Hurricane Katrina, storm surge could pour over levees in New Orleans if a strong Category 2 or higher hurricane strikes the city, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday.

While the forecast uses what officials say is the most accurate and complete picture yet of the region’s levee heights, they said they weren’t surprised by findings that reaffirm the area surrounding New Orleans is among the nation’s most hurricane-vulnerable. The forecast released Monday represents the first time the yearly storm surge predictions have used levee heights based on global positioning system technology.

So, how much has been spent to bring the New Orleans levees back to what was thought to be the barely-adequate standard of withstanding a Cat 3 storm?

Seen at Business Insurance:

The U.S. Supreme Court refused Tuesday to hear a case in which a federal appeals court ruled that property insurance policies did not cover flood damage in New Orleans caused by the failure of levees during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

In its Aug. 2, 2007, decision in the Katrina Canal Breaches Litigation, which it revised on Aug. 30, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that “even if plaintiffs can prove that the levees were negligently designed, constructed or maintained and that the breaches were due to this negligence, the flood exclusions in the plaintiffs’ policies unambiguously preclude their recovery.”

Repeat after me: A flood is a flood is a flood.

It’s nice to see the courts continuing to see sense here, and hopefully this will finally close the book on this unfortunate chapter of the Katrina mess.