As the center of Hurricane Katrina passed southeast of New Orleans on August 29, 2005, winds downtown were in the Category 1 range with frequent intense gusts. The storm surge caused approximately 23 breaches in the drainage canal and navigational canal levees and flood walls. As mandated in the Flood Control Act of 1965, responsibility for the design and construction of the city's levees belongs to the United States Army Corps of Engineers and responsibility for their maintenance belongs to the Orleans Levee Board.[1][2] The failures of levees and flood walls during Katrina are considered by experts to be the worst engineering disaster in the history of the United States.[3] By August 31, 2005, 80% of New Orleans was flooded, with some parts under 15 feet (4.6 m) of water. The famous French Quarter and Garden District escaped flooding because those areas are above sea level. The major breaches included the 17th Street Canal levee, the Industrial Canal levee, and the London Avenue Canal flood wall. These breaches caused the majority of the flooding, according to a June 2007 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers.[4] The flood disaster halted oil production and refining which increased oil prices worldwide.
When authorized, the flood control design and construction were projected to take 13 years to complete. When Katrina made landfall in 2005, the project was between 60 and 90% complete with a projected date of completion estimated for 2015, nearly 50 years after authorization.[8] Hurricane Georges in September 1998 galvanized some scientists, engineers and politicians into collective planning, with Scientific American declaring that "New Orleans is a disaster waiting to happen" in October 2001.[9] However, even the most insistent calls from officials to evacuate ahead of Katrina did not warn that the levees could breach.[10]
An actual engineer explains why the wall is ‘a disaster of numerous types waiting to happen.’
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At this point, you must already be sensing the impending disaster and wondering how everyone else failed to notice. Time can be a funny thing! The Vasa was a disaster waiting to happen. Additionally, it did not help that the primary designer, Henrik Hybertsson, fell ill and died in 1627, almost one year before the Vasa was completed.
The plans were undocumented, there were no detailed specifications, and five different teams were working on the hull without any intercommunication! This was one of the biggest projects in Sweden at that time, and it was a total disaster just waiting to happen. 2ff7e9595c
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