[StBernard] Corp of Engineers

[Westley Annis]

Terry,

My understanding of the answer to your questions.

1) When the levees were originally designed, probably right after Betsy, the
consensus was to build to protect for what would be the most common
hurricane to strike.  At the time, the Saffir-Simpson scale was not yet
invented, so it was never designed to a true Category Three storm, although
the criteria they used was closer to a three than a two or four, so that's
how it came to be described over the years.

The folks in charge of this always assumed a fast moving storm and you had
many more miles of coast to weaken the storm then you have today.  Not to
mention, the MRGO was not around during Betsy.

2) You are exactly right about St. Bernard flooding if a flood gate is built
by the Green Bridge.  If this idea ever gets the green light, you can kiss
St. Bernard good-bye forever.  I don't know where or how Junior got wind of
this proposal, but I hope he stays on top of it and lets us know if it looks
like it even starts to crawl forward.

Westley

-----Original Message-----


Two questions:
 
1.  Why is the standard levee height 17.5 feet?  I thought the storm surge
was 30 something  feet high.   If so, what good is a 17.5 foot levee going
to do?
 
2.  If  there is a MRGO flood gate put right near the "Green Bridge",
wouldn't St. Bernard flood every time that flood gate is closed?  Seems like
such a flood gate would protect New Orleans at the expense of St. Bernard
especially the areas below Paris Road.
 
Many thanks,
 
Terry Vinson Battaglia