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August 31, 2005
Levee breach updates
From nola.com. Click the link to read the whole article, it has lots of info on the physics of the issue. (And I hope that "500 yards" is a typo and that they really meant "500 feet". It was 200 feet yesterday.)
The catastrophic flooding that filled the bowl that is New Orleans on Monday and Tuesday will only get worse over the next few days because rainfall from Hurricane Katrina continues to flow into Lake Pontchartrain from north shore rivers and streams, and east winds and a 17.5-foot storm crest on the Pearl River block the outflow water through the Rigolets and Chef Menteur Pass.The lake is normally 1 foot above sea level, while the city of New Orleans is an average of 6 feet below sea level. But a combination of storm surge and rainfall from Katrina have raised the lake's surface to 6 feet above sea level, or more.
All of that water moving from the lake has found several holes in the lake's banks - all pouring into New Orleans. Water that crossed St. Charles Parish in an area where the lakefront levee has not yet been completed, and that backed up from the lake in Jefferson Parish canals, is funneling into Kenner and Metairie.
A 500-yard and growing breach in the eastern wall of the 17th Street Canal separating New Orleans from Metairie is pouring hundreds of thousands of gallons of lake water per second into the New Orleans area. Water also is flowing through two more levee breaches along the Industrial Canal, which created a Hurricane Betsy-on-steroids flood in the Lower 9th Ward on Monday that is now spreading south into the French Quarter and other parts of the city.
Susan gave a link to a Houston Chronicle blogger with good info on New Orleans. He links to some great flickr photos (below) that use old aerial photos of the canal to explain the breach. Keep in mind, the breach is much larger than 200 feet now. (These are not current photos, they show no flooding, but they give you an idea of the geography involved.)
City overview with breach overview
17th Street Canal Vertical Shot
Site of 200 Ft Breach New Orleans Flood (prior to flooding)
Posted by ray at August 31, 2005 10:31 AM | Permalink
Categories: [katrina | new orleans ]
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