i.e. a man-made error. Today’s nola.com hosts Evidence points to man-made disaster, a long and comprehensive article on the sequence of events leading up to the current state of Orleans and surrounding parishes, a timeline that heads back from August 29, 2005 into the 1950s.
Experts say the New Orleans flood of 2005 should join the space shuttle explosions and the sinking of the Titanic on history’s list of ill-fated disasters attributable to human mistakes.
… most structures that fail do so not because they’re hit by overwhelming forces, but because of flaws that creep in unnoticed during design, construction and upkeep … 80 percent of 600 structural engineering failures he studied in the past 17 years were caused by “human, organizational and knowledge uncertainties.”
… “What makes levee design and engineering so challenging is you can have a system that’s many, many miles long and you only need the weakest 150 feet to rupture for the whole system to fail.”
… Corps standards for levees and floodwalls date back decades, officials say, and were intended to protect sparsely populated areas, not cities and billions of dollars of infrastructure. The safety factor of 1.3 used in the designs is significantly lower than those used in structures with similarly large-scale tasks of protecting lives and property.
… and the list goes on. My concern does not surround what happened, but how and when this nation is going to address all of these now known problems before the next big storm. Or if they are at all. When the Army Corps of Engineers was responsible for the current levee circumstances, why are they on the job again? Are there no other options for southeastern Louisiana?
I fear that this nation as a whole is losing its Onwards and Upwards mentality, especially when it comes to science and engineering as well as sociopolitical areas in which it cannot easily see economic redemption. What an unfortunate fate for a country that coined the term Yankee Ingenuity. This taxpaying scientist cannot see anything that remotely resembles innovation and ingenuity in the complication-addled Iraqi occupation and NASA shuttle program, but these ventures continue to be funded and minus this level of contention. Why the resistance to readily fund an enviable engineering marvel – the modernization of the levee system in an area of economic and social import to America? Thoughts?
If the Army Corps of Engineers does not do it, who will? In this day and age, it would be say, Halliburton, or some other corporation with limited tax-payer-driven oversight, and corners would be cut etc etc…
So you are saying that there isn’t a single overseeable group that can get the job done and done right?
what about the dutch? we know they can do it… how difficult would it be to hire the design team that designed their levees, gave them produce a set of binding construction documents and let every major construction company bid for construction? then let the designers, who would be completely objective and not involved financially or politically connected, award the contract! and include penalties for non-performance and warranties in the contracts! the army C of E design and construction not only did not have warranties, but you can’t even sue them apparently…
this is the american way: let private competition provide the lowest price, and keep the quality in check by having this supervised by uninvolved but professional folks!
just my two cents, as an architect who knows from experience that the only way to get quality at a reasonable price is to bid based on very precise requirements.
The problem is not that the Army Corps of Engineers, or Halliburton, or Bechtel, or any other engineering entity is incapable of building adequate facilities. The problem is that there is no political will to initiate such an action. No one wants to stand up because they will only be hammered down by those with a different cause to be funded.
The Apollo program could not happen today.
Sad.
I agree that the New Orleans disaster is attributable not only to the design flaws, but mostly to the errors in human operation of the design. I am a civil engineer, and I have been travelling around the country and doing my own independent research for 2 years now. I am looking for people like you to become enthusiasts of what soon will be my proposals.
I am creating an organization where you will be able to unite and support my progressive designs, as well as give feedback, every person will be able to have importance there, your hope and your input will make a difference there. Send your comments to organobox_6@yahoo.com