Professional and Career Topics

Are we doomed to repeat history? I have Hurricane Katrina on top of mind as we approach the 20th anniversary of the storm and the ensuing tragedy. Following Katrina, the ASCE conducted a comprehensive study to understand what went wrong and what lessons were learned. This work included several impactful recommendations with broad applicability to flood-prone areas. Have we learned from this experience as a profession? Here is a link to a publicly available version of the ASCE report if you have not seen or need a reminder.

https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/katrina/reports/erpreport.pdf

Are we doomed to repeat history? I have Hurricane Katrina on top of mind as we approach the 20th anniversary of the storm and the ensuing tragedy. Following Katrina, the ASCE conducted a comprehensive study to understand what went wrong and what lessons were learned. This work included several impactful recommendations with broad applicability to flood-prone areas. Have we learned from this experience as a profession? Here is a link to a publicly available version of the ASCE report if you have not seen or need a reminder.

https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/katrina/reports/erpreport.pdf

I am a Past-President of the Louisiana Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers and served as a senior consulting hydrologist to the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East (New Orleans east-bank) from 2010 to 2016 and to the Amite River Basin Commission (Baton Rouge region) from 2003 to 2022.

What really caused the tragic failure of the NO perimeter system during Katrina?

Among many contributing factors, one was overriding:  a bungled shift in priority from Protection (public safety) to Ri$k Reduction (damages).

Dating back to the early 1990s, federal, state, and local officials ALL were distracted by NFIP incentives to reduce the flood insurance mandate zone and premium costs. This led directly to:

·         Prioritizing other federally funded projects, especially the SELA urban drainage upgrade (given the 1989 deluge).

·         Protracted deferral of serious perimeter system design and construction issues.

·         And federal, state, and local officials ALL avoiding implications-especially catastrophic breach risk.

Could it happen again?

The improved perimeter system is now explicitly named the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System.

The system is higher and stronger than prior to Katrina; properly operated and maintained it dramatically reduces hurricane surge insurance cost.

Levee and floodwall segments include some contingency freeboard; but over future decades there remains a significant chance for wave overtopping somewhere; thankfully, wave overtopping alone does not cause catastrophic inundation.

The system also includes some additional structural resilience against breaching; but freeboard and breach resilience are not the same at all segments.

Crucially: the system-with limited freeboard and resilience-is only certified for Property Damage Insurance purposes; the system is NOT certified (or certifiable) for Safety/Protection.

SO YES:  while the chances are low, catastrophic breach flooding of some part of New Orleans could happen again.

Let's ALL face up to the system flood Ri$k Reduction purpose, its benefits and limitations, and THE IMPLICATIONS: Buy flood insurance!  Plan for evacuation!  And support proper system O&M and additional cost-effective Ri$k reduction!

See NO East-Bank Hurricane Surge Residual Risk Reduction Report, 2016, Bob Jacobsen PE for SLFPA-E

Also see:

Are we doomed to repeat history? I have Hurricane Katrina on top of mind as we approach the 20th anniversary of the storm and the ensuing tragedy. Following Katrina, the ASCE conducted a comprehensive study to understand what went wrong and what lessons were learned. This work included several impactful recommendations with broad applicability to flood-prone areas. Have we learned from this experience as a profession? Here is a link to a publicly available version of the ASCE report if you have not seen or need a reminder.

https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/katrina/reports/erpreport.pdf

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and insight. Do you know if anyone ever 'scorecarded' the completed system and its current organization against the recommendations of the ASCE task force and USACE Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET)?  Should this be done?

I am a Past-President of the Louisiana Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers and served as a senior consulting hydrologist to the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East (New Orleans east-bank) from 2010 to 2016 and to the Amite River Basin Commission (Baton Rouge region) from 2003 to 2022.

What really caused the tragic failure of the NO perimeter system during Katrina?

Among many contributing factors, one was overriding:  a bungled shift in priority from Protection (public safety) to Ri$k Reduction (damages).

Dating back to the early 1990s, federal, state, and local officials ALL were distracted by NFIP incentives to reduce the flood insurance mandate zone and premium costs. This led directly to:

·         Prioritizing other federally funded projects, especially the SELA urban drainage upgrade (given the 1989 deluge).

·         Protracted deferral of serious perimeter system design and construction issues.

·         And federal, state, and local officials ALL avoiding implications-especially catastrophic breach risk.

Could it happen again?

The improved perimeter system is now explicitly named the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System.

The system is higher and stronger than prior to Katrina; properly operated and maintained it dramatically reduces hurricane surge insurance cost.

Levee and floodwall segments include some contingency freeboard; but over future decades there remains a significant chance for wave overtopping somewhere; thankfully, wave overtopping alone does not cause catastrophic inundation.

The system also includes some additional structural resilience against breaching; but freeboard and breach resilience are not the same at all segments.

Crucially: the system-with limited freeboard and resilience-is only certified for Property Damage Insurance purposes; the system is NOT certified (or certifiable) for Safety/Protection.

SO YES:  while the chances are low, catastrophic breach flooding of some part of New Orleans could happen again.

Let's ALL face up to the system flood Ri$k Reduction purpose, its benefits and limitations, and THE IMPLICATIONS: Buy flood insurance!  Plan for evacuation!  And support proper system O&M and additional cost-effective Ri$k reduction!

See NO East-Bank Hurricane Surge Residual Risk Reduction Report, 2016, Bob Jacobsen PE for SLFPA-E

Also see:

Are we doomed to repeat history? I have Hurricane Katrina on top of mind as we approach the 20th anniversary of the storm and the ensuing tragedy. Following Katrina, the ASCE conducted a comprehensive study to understand what went wrong and what lessons were learned. This work included several impactful recommendations with broad applicability to flood-prone areas. Have we learned from this experience as a profession? Here is a link to a publicly available version of the ASCE report if you have not seen or need a reminder.

https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/katrina/reports/erpreport.pdf

Are we doomed to repeat history? I have Hurricane Katrina on top of mind as we approach the 20th anniversary of the storm and the ensuing tragedy. Following Katrina, the ASCE conducted a comprehensive study to understand what went wrong and what lessons were learned. This work included several impactful recommendations with broad applicability to flood-prone areas. Have we learned from this experience as a profession? Here is a link to a publicly available version of the ASCE report if you have not seen or need a reminder.

https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/katrina/reports/erpreport.pdf

The HSDRR System was extensively studied and was reconstructed by USACE (post Katrina) , using their risk based design approach. Various potential failure modes were analyzed, including overtopping . James P Moore, PE 

Are we doomed to repeat history? I have Hurricane Katrina on top of mind as we approach the 20th anniversary of the storm and the ensuing tragedy. Following Katrina, the ASCE conducted a comprehensive study to understand what went wrong and what lessons were learned. This work included several impactful recommendations with broad applicability to flood-prone areas. Have we learned from this experience as a profession? Here is a link to a publicly available version of the ASCE report if you have not seen or need a reminder.

https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/katrina/reports/erpreport.pdf