BREAKING NEWS: Water pouring over Ninth Ward Levee in NO

[arcticfire]

Especially bad for NOLA because a lot of Americans are going to be wondering whether that's the right place to spend a hundred billion dollars to rebuild a city. They can't even start to rebuild until the levees are back to what they were originally and that will take until next summer at the earliest.

Oh don't worry they will rebuild regardless , common sence has no bearing when it comes to where we build things.

[Stratosphere747]

I'd suggest that Nagin gets some more security around him.....

[PTrackerLA]

The areas flooding were some of the most low lying and flooded areas in the city. I don't think they will be rebuilding some of those neighborhoods after this.

[SoupBone]

Chances are it's the patches to the previous breaches which are failing.

It's actually 3 new breaches....one is a huge breach that is waterfalling over the levee and eroding the bottoms of it. I am listening to the Natl. Guard scanner and it's pretty bad right now. Some areas already reporting waist deep water levels.

[Wacahootaman]

Lordy!

Accordin to Farrakan, the CIA musta done dynamited the levees agin!

[gatorcane]

CNN:

New flooding in New Orleans
Water was flowing over the industrial canal levee in New Orleans triggering new flooding in the low-lying 9th Ward neighborhood. (Full story)

While the Army Corps of Engineers expected flooding from Rita, it was not anticipated this early.

Mitch Frazier, a spokesman for the corps, said it was not clear if the flooding was caused by rain or a storm surge.

"We don't know, likely a little of both," he said. A CNN photojournalist reported that the water was rising quickly and was already at least two feet deep.

Officials started closing the flood gates around Lake Pontchartrain Thursday morning in preparation for Rita.

More than 1,000 deaths, most in Louisiana, are blamed on Hurricane Katrina, which struck August 29 after slamming Florida a few days earlier.

Several refineries, which process about 3 million barrels of oil each day, could be threatened by Rita. Some energy analysts predict that disruption from the storm could trigger a surge in gas prices. (Watch Rita's threat to refineries -- 2:43)

Oil prices dropped to below $66 a barrel on Friday after Rita lost some of its intensity. At its peak, the storm was a Category 5 with 175 mph winds.

The storm's latest track also appeared to take it away from some of the major refining hubs. (Full story)

[stormie_skies]

Heartbreaking. Absolutely, completely heartbreaking.

[Rob Beaux]

[/quote]
Oh don't worry they will rebuild regardless , common sence has no bearing when it comes to where we build things.[/quote]

Do you realize why NOLA is there in the first place. Its the first solid ground and the only ocean port on the Mississippi River. Our main exports now are agriculture. Do you have any idea where they load those exports on to ships. Not to rebuild will kill wha tlittel exports we have left.

[cjrciadt]

Not much rain has falling on NOLA yet, but over 4inches have fallen in Lake Pontchartrain in the past 3hrs due to squalls. (Estimated by Radar)

[arkess7]

poor new orleans......the big easy will never be the same i swar they should just let some of it go back to the wetlands....then maybe they can build a BIGGER MORE MODERN LEVEE SYSTEM!!!!!

[kevin]

I was afraid this would happen along with others. Its just going to make rebuilding that much farther in the future. The lake is probably going to fill up New Orleans again. At least the resources are there for immediate response.

[wlfpack81]

NO can and IMO should rebuild. However, they will have to just give up on certain parts of the city like the 9th ward and NO east. Also they're going to have to build high seawalls (well lakewalls and riverwalls in this case) to keep this from happening again. Yea it may make the city look ugly with 20-30ft concrete walls around it but that's about the only thing they can do IMO.

[krysof]

people have brought this on themselves, if the levee system was build a lot better and stronger, than Katrina would have probably never breached the levees, and Rita wouldn't make it worse- It's been 40 years since Betsy when the build the levee system, and yet in those years they couldn't make a stronger, modernized levee system, I mean that is absolutely pathetic

The government should have helped with modernizing the levee system a long time ago.

[gatorcane]

people have brought this on themselves, if the levee system was build a lot better and stronger, than Katrina would have probably never breached the levees, and Rita wouldn't make it worse- It's been 40 years since Betsy when the build the levee system, and yet in those years they couldn't make a stronger, modernized levee system, I mean that is absolutely pathetic

The government should have helped with modernizing the levee system a long time ago.

I heard the military was was trying to get funding several years ago to rebuild the levy system, however, congress shot it down....

can somebody find this info...?

[TSmith274]

I'm not going to argue with people saying New Orlenians, like myself, shouldn't rebuild their city. It's pointless, because most people don't take the time to inform themselves about our geography, our history, and the acts of man that have endangered it. People on this board are smarter than that, I know. Most people here have a good grasp on it. So, I'm not attacking anyone here, but....
New Orleans survived 300 years because for much of that time, we had an adequate buffer provided by our coastal marshes. Oil companies have cut thousands of canals that criss-cross our coastal areas and hasten coastal erosion exponentially. Also, after Hurricane Betsey flooded much of the city in 1965, congress only approved enough money to protect against a category 3. In fact, $200 million of that $700 million plan has yet to be delivered. This is 40 years later, people. Katrina, a cat 4, comes along, and people act suprised that it got destroyed. This city was let down, not protected, and left for dead... that's the bottom line, and we should all be ashamed of that. Until we make the effort to rebuild the coastline, and reverse the damage that we have caused, and before we give the city adequate levee protection designed for a cat 5, we shouldn't write this city off. Yall take care.

P.S... I'm not giving local N.O. leaders a free pass. Lord knows, they are to blame too. Our local leaders have not been vocal enough in years past, and we all know their reputation. It's hard to get support for these types of projects when you can't even trust the state-level leaders.

[kevin]

The dutch can build pretty good walls. Maybe we should ask for some of their expertise.

[Canelaw99]

Some links on the levee funding issue:

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N02564147.htm

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9213319/

http://www.usace.army.mil/PA-09-01.pdf

Interesting one on money flowing to other "questionable" projects:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/07/AR2005090702462_pf.html

[curtadams]

people have brought this on themselves, if the levee system was build a lot better and stronger, than Katrina would have probably never breached the levees, and Rita wouldn't make it worse- It's been 40 years since Betsy when the build the levee system, and yet in those years they couldn't make a stronger, modernized levee system, I mean that is absolutely pathetic

The government should have helped with modernizing the levee system a long time ago.

I heard the military was was trying to get funding several years ago to rebuild the levy system, however, congress shot it down....

can somebody find this info...?

Bush proposed cutting it and Congress approved the cuts. He proposed cutting it in his first budget and then cut more for Iraq.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050901/pl_ ... funding_dc

[Dick Pache]

NOLA levee vunerabilities from Corps
http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/cepa/katri ... pumps.html

[gatorcane]

thanks for the links! That is why I like storm2k...you can get information really quick.