Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog

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The Worst News for Lower 9th ward and ST. Bernard Parish in Se Louisiana.//////\\\\\\Wednesday, March 07, 2007
By Karen Turni Bazile,Times Picayune

The Army Corps of Engineers has no plans to elevate the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet levee on the Orleans Parish side of the Bayou Bienvenue locks, and St. Bernard officials say that's bad news for parish residents and those in the Lower 9th Ward.

St. Bernard officials have generally praised the corps' quick-footed effort to rebuild the devastated levees along the Gulf Outlet to a height of 20 feet in St. Bernard after Hurricane Katrina. But several said they were caught off guard and disappointed by news they learned at Tuesday's Parish Council meeting that there are no plans to elevate the levee between the bayou and the concrete wall on the Industrial Canal, leaving a height gap of as much as 9 feet.

That stretch of earthen levee in Orleans Parish was authorized to stand at 14 feet but has subsided to a height of 11 and 12 feet in many places, said Chris Gilmore, the corps' senior project manager for levees and floodwalls in St. Bernard Parish. The levee on the St. Bernard side was authorized for a height of 17.5 feet and was overbuilt to 20 feet to allow for subsidence.

Gilmore, who regularly updates the council on corps projects, said the corps doesn't want to spend money raising that stretch of the levee because it won't be needed once floodgates authorized by Congress are built in the next few years. The levees will lie inside the gates.

After the flood-control system failed catastrophically during Hurricane Katrina, the Bush administration gave the corps a twofold mandate for restoring protection to the metro area: rebuild by June 1, 2006, the destroyed or damaged sections of the system to the heights authorized by Congress when it passed the Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection Plan in 1965; and have the rest of the system up to its authorized height by Sept. 1, 2007.

However, the situation with this section of levee is unique, Gilmore said, because the plan doesn't call for it to be elevated to its authorized height of 14 feet because of the proposed gates.

The gates' locations are still being determined, but Gilmore said leaving the levees at a lower height on the Orleans side of Bayou Bienvenue increases the vulnerability to flooding for St. Bernard and the Lower 9th Ward until the gates are built. He said the issue is being studied, and some elevation work could be authorized on an interim basis since the gates won't be completed until 2010.

St. Bernard Parish Council Chairman Joey DiFatta said he and other parish officials plan to voice their concerns at a special meeting today of the East Louisiana Flood Protection Authority Levee Board, the newly consolidated east bank levee board, in the St. Bernard Parish Council chambers. "What burns me up is that they rebuilt our levees (in St. Bernard) in six or seven months, but they have no construction plans for that (Orleans) portion of the levee in the works. I will be here screaming and hollering" at the meeting, DiFatta said.

. . . . . . .

Karen Turni Bazile can be reached at kturni@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3321

The area the below article refrences is here..the lower left side of Lake Borgne where the Funnel comes into the 9th Ward and ST.Bernard ..Link

Indeed there will be alot of talk in the next couple of months as SST'S are running somewhat above average In parts of the caribbean to the african coast.

Here is another look at current SST'S in the atlantic basin.

(Sea Surface Temps Gulf/Caribbean)



(Sea Surface Temps Atlantic Basin)

Pat......once the gats are built..will that really protect it..and is the gates project on schedule?

The water as it arrived in ST Bernard from Katrina by Security Cam at FOX transmitter..retrieved weeks after the storm..

In that area..the GAtes proposed wont be Completed till 2010. They want the Corps to Raise the levees their to 18ft as was done downriver...But they now arent to do it.That keeps St. Bernard and Lower 9th in Jeopordy still.

what's the cost of rasing the levees pat..any idea?

Task Force Guardian from Earliest Conception assessments.Link

The Corps Of Engineers TAsk Force Guardian Website. Link

Dirts cheap ric..its the Corps..not doing what the Local Engineers and Local navigational experts tell them to.They Most High and Mighty in their own lil minds.Plus,..after the work they did for Decades Failed miserably...theyve come around to more local influences of the Engineering.But the Buracrecy with them is Immemse and decades old.Nothing moves fast..cept now.In critical areas.They will build the levee up there.They just need to be one-upped and the pressures on already.They not the brightest PR guys the Corps...LOL

ok...no dollr numbers...i was just trying to see....how big a bet we're talking about..

Money was appropriated a Year ago..

ok...dirt cheap....is that a bit of double entendre?...LOL....strange.....think about it.....they've got the approval....they've got the funds....and they've got the mandate..you'ld think with that...someone in management..would have a brother with a backhoe that they could give the job to and be able to skim some profit

That dont happen in Reality.The GAO sees to that.Too much cnn in yer head still. LOL

Although HAlliburton has a Big Dirt/mudlogger interest.But that all offshore.They not in the Land Levee Buissness.

do you remember back in the history books....our country was floundering money wise..some great depression or other...and a president said....i'm gonna put people to work...and dams were built..and roads were built...what ever happeded to that kind of goverment spirit?

This story is where all the FAcets of the Diamond come together ric.GW..SSts..Cat3-5 threat...er what else..west-casting...ERCs..all the juciy parts of the Puzzle..here..and Galveston.

They not in the Land Levee Buissness.


and thus the reason nothing gets done..you aint got some influence to peddle..the project just isn't as important

Faded in the 60s ric.

pat....there's also a correlation between military spending and public works

They weird folks the Corps.Really are.SOme 50% of their workforce..educated people they say..lost their Homes here.And they still stiff the Media, refuse calls..and overall are a pain in the But t.But 86,000 lawsuits Filed against them .last week have them very Jumpy.Fed judge open the door to suits and Class-actions for those afffected from their poor designs and contracted work.

Thats a first in U. S. History.All the suit forms had to be in by 4pm last Weds.You should have seen the cars lined up.They had 40 people out there collecting them..SOme people even taping the forms being sent in as they were collected.Its a freak show,US citizens get to SUe the Federal Levee Builders..LOL.Only here Dude.

Personally.. I hear They have their Lumps in their throats with the Newest Forecast out for the season.I hope they kick it up a notch.St Bernard and areas in the east are still only sparsely back..maybe 20percent.Another blow..well.Lets not consider that today.

but in an evil twisted way......it had to be fun to watch

One day..we will meet and Ill tell ya a few Post storm stories before I got out Sept 16th..LOL.Bring wiskey and eats.Itll be a while.LOL!

Im off to find a seafood burner and some Propane.Going to Boil some crawfish come Sat.

oh great....whiskey...and after two shots...i'm a gonner...so i won't remember a thing....how about we do whiskey and coke....i'll whiff the whiskey and drink the coke...and...grab some vegetarian crawfish

Redevelopment projects like what is needed in New Orleans can't take place unless developer loans can be insured. One reads about this or that developer taking the reigns in New Orleans. None of these developers have that kind of capital. They work with giant loans, which must be underwritten, and the risk of New Orleans going under again is too great for insurers.