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Pastimes : Hurricane and Severe Weather Tracking -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Benny-Rubin who wrote (9426)	8/31/2008 12:18:29 PM
From: LTK007	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 26004

Vulnerable West Bank levees will be tested by Meghan Gordon, The Times-Picayune Sunday August 31, 2008, 10:55 AM nola.com Vulnerable West Bank levees will be tested by Meghan Gordon, The Times-Picayune Sunday August 31, 2008, 10:55 AM Flood control experts are calling Hurricane Gustav a worst-case scenario for the West Bank because they know that no matter how much they've accelerated the area's hurricane defenses in the past three years, the system remains incomplete and severely vulnerable in some spots. With predictions of storm surge topping 10 feet when it passes Grand Isle, West Bank leaders admit privately that they are preparing for widespread flooding and water rescues. Jerry Spohrer, executive director of the levee district, meanwhile, said they still have a shot at keeping a surge out of the most heavily populated areas. But those chances diminish the higher the surge sits when it approaches the West Bank hurricane protection system "At 7 feet, we're iffy," he said Sunday. "It's not so much that we don't have the elevation. When you talk about the pressure of that water, the waves of that water pressing against what's there, we're keeping our fingers crossed." David Bindewald, president of the West Bank levee board, called Gustav the storm they have always feared. The Army Corps of Engineers has not released storm surge predictions, but parish officials who have seen another set of SLOSH models said a wall of water higher than the levee system could barrel toward the West Bank tomorrow. Mike Stack, a corps project manager who oversees the Harvey Canal, said he hasn't seen the models. "We're prepared to do what we have to do to hold it back," he said. Weak spots stretch across the system, from earthen levees at the back of Lake Cataouatche, floodwalls near Westwego, the Harvey Canal in the middle of the West Bank and earthen levees guarding the Intracoastal Canal at the back of Algiers. On the Harvey Canal, parish officials are questioning whether 8-foot-high sand baskets protecting the southeast bank can withstand any wave action, let alone overtopping. A sector gate at Lapalco Boulevard is designed to stop surges from entering the northern half of the canal up to 11 feet above sea level. Corps officials were preparing to close the mechanical structure Sunday evening or overnight and start pumping water out of the drainage canal when the tide is at 2 feet above sea level and rising. If there's any comfort to be had as the West Bank awaits Gustav, it's that the system has undergone an unprecedented amount of levee improvements since Hurricane Katrina. That storm gave local leaders the urgency to demand that Congress fund the levee system that has been more than 30 years in the making. The butterfly gates across the Harvey Canal are the chief example of that progress. "We're better off because of everything we've done on the Harvey Canal that wasn't there three years ago," Spohrer said. "It may come to prove that it was all worth doing. Because we did do it, I feel a lot better." The work has also increased Westwego's safety, as a barge gate can now close the Company Canal from surges that the corps believes would have toppled inadequate floodwalls near the Westwego seafood market. Crews were beginning to sink the barge gate into place Sunday morning to have it in place before tides start rising. Meghan Gordon can be reached at meghannola@gmail.com or (504) 352-2551.

To: Benny-Rubin who wrote (9426)	8/31/2008 12:53:58 PM
From: Box-By-The-Riviera™	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 26004

yep. where the rain bands hit will be key. allison in many ways was a very localized event within the city itself. a luck of the draw event in a way. but a cat 5 rain.... hmmmmm.... there are lots of places this time all over the city that could get smacked big. my box was built 4 feet above the flood plain. were water to reach the 1st floor, it would mean a swath of the city for miles around including many retail centers would be accessible only by boat. period. worse in lower lying areas. in fact......i'd guess more than half of the country's 4th largest city would be a lake if 40 inches of rain came down broadly, unlike during allison. that would affect at least 1-2 million people. damage would be extreme to say the least.