[StBernard] Corps shows off work on St. Bernard levees

[Westley Annis]

now let me get this strait. we are supposed to cheer for the finishing of a
17 ft levee when the water was 20 to 25 feet.  hum to me this doesn't make
sense.  what are we cheering for? that we will only get flooded by 5 to 10
feet of water instead of 20 to 25 feet of water.  hey hip hip hooray!

Ben

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

>

> Corps shows off work on St. Bernard levees

>

> Saturday, May 27, 2006

>

> Work to restore levees along the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet in St.

> Bernard Parish to their pre-Katrina elevation is on track to be 

> completed Monday, the Army Corps of Engineers said Friday, as it gave 

> a tour of the project to parish and local levee district officials.

>

> Parish Council members said they were pleased to see that the $80 

> million reconstruction of an 11-mile stretch of levee that was mostly 

> washed away by Katrina will restore the entire stretch back to 17.5 

> feet by Monday. But the three council members on the tour said they 

> expect federal elected officials and the corps to keep their promise 

> to further improve the area's hurricane protection by either raising 

> the levee higher or coating it with protective cement armoring or 

> both.

>

> "We are in a lot better shape, but we are not finished yet," Council 

> Vice Chairman Joey DiFatta told corps officials.

>

> Concerns about the levees are the No. 1 priority for parish officials, 

> a sentiment shared by Col. Lewis Setliff III, the commander of the corps'

> nine-month repairing effort dubbed Task Force Guardian.

>

> "St. Bernard will be much better off than this past storm season," 

> Setliff said. "It is a substantially better engineered and designed 

> levee. It's like night and day" from last summer.

>

> "It's looking a lot better than I thought it would look," Councilwoman 

> Judy Hoffmeister said. "But I am cautiously optimistic for this 

> hurricane season because Mother Nature doesn't tell anyone her plans."

>

> Setliff said the reconstructed levee has a much wider support base and 

> is taller than before Katrina. Although it was supposed to be at a 

> height of

> 17.5 feet then, most areas had settled to 15 or 16 feet, said Kevin 

> Wagner, project manager for the St. Bernard levee repairs.

>

> For Wagner, the repairs have a personal urgency. His Chalmette home, 

> which Katrina flooded, was demolished this week and was one of half a 

> dozen homes his immediate family lost in St. Bernard. He said he is 

> working to make it safe to live in his hometown again.

>

> DiFatta said people must know the community is protected before they 

> will move back. Officials estimate that 20,000 of the parish's 67,000 

> residents have returned, but they hope another 10,000 move back in the

next year.

>

> "However, after that it will depend on what the corps will do for us," 

> he said.

>

> Setliff said the corps has projects planned through September 2007 to 

> improve the levees enough to protect the community from stronger storms.

>

> Although Setliff said levees are being rebuilt higher and with 

> improved soils and compacting techniques, he said they are still just 

> earthen levees with concrete armoring only in key areas such as where 

> floodgates meet earthen areas. Those sections were compromised when 

> the surge rushed around the concrete structures and took out entire 

> sections of the earthen levee.

>

> Setliff told local officials they need to say whether they want the 

> levees raised first or armored first because it may be better to delay 

> armoring while the corps builds the levees higher over the next few years.

>

> The original levee, built after the corps dredged the shipping channel 

> in the 1960s, was built using highly organic soils dredged from the

channel.

> The levees survived minor storm surges for decades, but Katrina's 

> massive surge, estimated at more than 20 feet, overtopped the levee 

> and the water pouring on the inside face of the levees caused the soil 

> to quickly crumble, according to the corps.

>

> But outside experts have said the storm's wave energy and surge 

> current caused the levee to collapse by eroding the side facing Lake 

> Borgne before the surge overtopped the levee, an analysis that 

> supports calls for using more concrete armoring.

>

> Councilman Mark Madary, echoing concerns raised for years, said the 

> Orleans side of a levee that starts at Bayou Bienvenue and runs behind 

> homes on the west side of Paris Road needs to be elevated to the same 

> height as the Gulf Outlet levee.

>

> "Time will tell," Madary said of the reconstructed levees. "I'm 

> worried that it's still low on the New Orleans side. Water is going to 

> seek its own level."

>

> Setliff agreed and said several ways of raising the levee on the 

> Orleans side are being explored but won't be completed until later 

> this hurricane season or next year.