Friday, October 07, 2005

Something moved that levee 35 feet!

Engineers said Friday the flooding in New Orleans' upscale Lakeview neighborhood was caused by failure of levee embankments -- not by water topping two of the main floodwalls.

Earlier investigations of the flooding had said high water was a key cause of the flooding at the 17th Street and London Avenue canals. The American Society of Civil Engineers said an independent inspection of the levees this week showed the levees gave way.

"We found no evidence of overtopping the levees," the statement said. "There is, however, evidence that a section of the levee embankment that supported the floodwall moved approximately 35 feet laterally."

Does this mean that the levees were poorly constructed or designed. It would seem so to me. If they weren't overtopped, they should have held.

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