Hurricane Katrina: Flood Control and Preparedness

The following links connect to articles regarding Flood Control and Preparedness in advance of, during, and after the catastrophic Hurricane Katrina which struck the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005.

Practicing for Disaster
In July 2004, approximately thirteen months prior to Hurricane Katrina, FEMA concluded its handling of the "Hurricane Pam" simulation, a training "exercise [that] used realistic weather and damage information developed by the National Weather Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the LSU Hurricane Center and other state and federal agencies to help officials develop joint response plans for a catastrophic hurricane in Louisiana":

"Hurricane Pam brought sustained winds of 120 mph, up to 20 inches of rain in parts of southeast Louisiana and storm surge that topped levees in the New Orleans area. More than one million residents evacuated and Hurricane Pam destroyed 500,000-600,000 buildings. Emergency officials from 50 parish, state, federal and volunteer organizations faced this scenario during a five-day exercise held this week at the State Emergency Operations Center in Baton Rouge."

"'We made great progress this week in our preparedness efforts,' said Ron Castleman, FEMA Regional Director. 'Disaster response teams developed action plans in critical areas such as search and rescue, medical care, sheltering, temporary housing, school restoration and debris management. These plans are essential for quick response to a hurricane but will also help in other emergencies.'"

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"Southeast Louisiana Catastrophic Hurricane Functional Plan"

A DRAFT copy of the "Southeast Louisiana Catastrophic Hurricane Functional Plan" (IEM/TEC04-070), dated August 6, 2004, (125-pdf) was posted online by MSNBC Media. The Plan was prepared under FEMA BPA HSFEHQ-04-A-0288, Task Order 001.

Pdf pages 5 through 11 address "Unwatering".

External Links: Articles & Commentary

July 2004

• "In Case of Emergency. Officials hope eight days of intense training for a catastrophic hurricane will aid recovery efforts if the real thing ever hits," Times Picayune (New Orleans), July 20, 2004; posted on Louisiana Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness website.

August 2005

• Jim Bradshaw, "Forecasters fear levees won’t hold Katrina," The Daily Advertiser ("Connecting Acadiana"), August 28, 2005.
• "Did New Orleans Catastrophe Have to Happen?" Editor & Publisher (Yahoo! News), August 30, 2005.
• Seth Borenstein, "Federal government wasn't ready for Katrina, disaster experts say," Knight Ridder Newspapers, August 31, 2005.
• Tim Grieve, "Warning? What warning?" Salon "War Room", August 31, 2005.

September 2005

• Andy Sullivan, "Budget cuts delayed New Orleans flood control work," Reuters (Yahoo! News), September 1, 2005.
• John Vidal and Duncan Campbell, "Why city's defences were down. Cuts in spending to raise levees blamed on cost of war in Iraq," Guardian (UK), September 1, 2005.
• Will Bunch, "Why the Levee Broke," Attytood (AlterNet), September 1, 2005.
• Tim Grieve, "When the levee breaks", Salon, September 1, 2005.
• Paul Craig Roberts, "How New Orleans Was Lost," antiwar.com, September 1, 2005.
• Molly Ivins, "Why New Orleans is in deep water," Creators Syndicate (Chicago Tribune), September 1, 2005; "A Flood of Bad Policies," AlterNet, September 2, 2005.
• "Shockingly Unprepared," Los Angeles Times, September 2, 2005.
• "New Orleans mayor lashes out at feds. Nagin: 'They are spinning and people are dying'," CNN, September 2, 2005.
• Josh White and Peter Whoriskey, "Planning, Response Are Faulted," Washington Post, September 2, 2005.
• Scott Shane and Eric Lipton, "Government Saw Flood Risk but Not Levee Failure," New York Times, September 2, 2005.
• Guy Gugliotta and Peter Whoriskey, "Moving Toward Drying Out. Repairs to Broken Levees Begin as Engineers Prime Pumps," Washington Post, September 2, 2005: "For three days, Corps officials had lamented the difficulty of gaining access to the canal, but yesterday a local contractor, Boh Bros. Construction Co., apparently drove to the mouth of the canal and started placing a set of steel sheet pilings to isolate the canal from the lake. This job was finished yesterday afternoon."
• Richard A. Serrano and Nicole Gaouette, "Despite Warnings, Washington Failed to Fund Levee Projects," Los Angeles Times (Yahoo! News), September 4, 2005.
• "'Times-Picayune' Details Tragic Turning Point in Disaster," Editor & Publisher (Media Channel), September 8, 2005.
• Michael Grunwald, "Money Flowed to Questionable Projects: State Leads in Army Corps Spending, but Millions Had Nothing to Do With Floods", Washington Post, September 8, 2005.