Secret Squirrel has once again turned his attention to New
Orleans,the hurricanes it suffers from, the waters of Lake Ponchartrain,
and the levees,and sees things are still sadly lacking and not right at
all for the safety of the citizens of New Orleans. Let's look at Lake
Pontchartrain which generates a vast problem and is a great threat in
itself to the people of New Orleans.
As an estuary, Pontchartrain is not a true lake. It is, however, part of
one of the largest wetlands in North America, and the world.It's
average depth,at 12-14 feet. with a Max. depth, 65 feet (20 m).Max.
length 40 mi (64 km) with Max. width 24 mi (39 km).It's surface area
is 630 sq mi (1630 km²).It threatens New Orleans with each and every
hurricane, regardless of actual strength, as storm surges develop from
the lake even yet at weak category 3 hurricanes as surge is dependent on
both wind, and actual water volumes from the hurricane itself.
The government, in it's idiocy, won't close off Lake Pontchartrain at the bridge,and
drain the lake which constantly threatens New Orleans with massive storm surge
flooding,over toppings, and breeches of the levee system which barely holds Lake Pontchartrain back.
A hurricane in September, 1947 flooded much of Metairie,
Louisiana, much of which is slightly below sea level due to land
subsidence after marshland was drained. After the storm,
hurricane-protection levees were built along Lake Pontchartrain's south
shore to protect New Orleans and nearby communities. A storm surge of 10
feet (3.0 m) from Hurricane Betsy overwhelmed some levees in Eastern
New Orleans in 1965 (while storm surge funneled in by the Mississippi
River – Gulf Outlet Canal and a levee failure flooded most of the Lower
9th Ward). After this the levees encircling the city and outlying
parishes were raised to heights of 14 to 23 feet (4.3 to 7.0 m). Due to
cost concerns, the levees were built to protect against only a Category 3
hurricane; however, some of the levees initially withstood the
Category 5 storm surge of Hurricane Katrina (August 2005), which only
slowed to Category 3 winds within hours of landfall (due to a
last-minute eyewall replacement cycle).
Experts using computer modeling at Louisiana State University after
Hurricane Katrina have concluded that the levees were never topped but
rather faulty design, inadequate construction, or somecombination of the
two were responsible for the flooding of most of New Orleans: some
canal walls leaked underneath because the wall foundations were not deep
enough in peat-subsoil to withstand the pressure of higher water.
Tropical Storm Isaac, downgraded from a hurricane about 19 hours after
making landfall, drove water over a levee in a lightly populated part of
Plaquemines Parish.Until the weather stabilizes,it’s too dangerous to
breach the levee, but it needs to be done so water can flow back into
the bay.There was considerable talk about breaching the levee to take
pressure from the great storm surge off the levee.So clearly then, all's
not well with the levees as such.
Storm surge depends on winds, and also on volume of water dropped during
the hurricane. One can see the problems with the levees let the water
in, let the water out, a breaching of the levees appears to be done.
For starters the levees have to be stronger than they are.....and
secondly, what with breaching and what not being done ion purpose, the
idea would then be to incorporate within the levees sluice gates such
that the breaching can be controlled without actually physically
breaching the levees.Squirrel sees the need for such improvements in the
New Orleans levees, but will the government see the sanity of
Squirrel's way.Squirrel sees the need for much more improvement.
