New Orleans levees get a near-failing grade in new corps rating system

[alp227]

Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune

A new Army Corps of Engineers rating system for the nation’s levees is about to deliver a near-failing grade to New Orleans area dikes, despite the internationally acclaimed $10 billion effort to rebuild the system in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, corps officials have confirmed.

Preliminary rankings obtained by The Times-Picayune show that the corps believes there’s still a significant risk of flooding from major hurricanes or river floods that are greater than the design heights of Mississippi River levees and hurricane levees on both the east and west banks. In both cases, the levees were rated Class II or “urgent (unsafe or potentially unsafe),” on a scale of I to V, with V representing normal or “adequately safe.”

The hurricane and river levees are designed to protect from surge created by a so-called 100-year hurricane, or a storm with a 1 percent chance of occurring. The ratings show that 500-year events, with a 0.2 percent chance of occurring in any year, will overtop the levees and cause significant flooding.

The new rating system was ordered by Congress in 2006, in the aftermath of Katrina. It is aimed at helping Congress and federal and local officials determine what levees must be improved.

Read more: http://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2011/08/new_orleans_levees_get_a_near-.html

[hugo_from_TN]

1. Isn't a 'near failing' grade called a 'passing' grade?

[uppityperson]

3. “urgent (unsafe or potentially unsafe)” doesn't sound like much of a passing grade

[AtheistCrusader]

4. No margin for error.

None whatsoever.

Not a great idea with lives on the line. Then again, continuing to inhabit a coastal city below sea level isn't a terribly great idea either. Forget a storm surge, imagine a 34 foot tsunami, like the Sendai quake in Japan?

[plumbob]

2. See, these are what levees, real ones, look like:

Not like this: