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A City Surrounded

By David Bjerklie

The flooding that has paralyzed the city of New Orleans was caused by hurricane Katrina, but human engineering also played a key role. The storm poked holes in a complicated system of flood walls that were built to protect the city from the sea.

New Orleans is an important port city because it is located where the Mississippi River flows into the Gulf of Mexico. But the city is not a perfect port. It sits in a swampy area that is mostly below sea level, so it regularly floods. Imagine the city as a dry bowl surrounded, right up to its brim, by water.

The levee system is a 350-mile-long maze of mounded earth, metal flood walls and concrete. Canals and 22 huge pumps are used to drain the soggy city after heavy rains. But they were no match for Katrina. The hurricane's powerful winds and waves overwhelmed the city's barriers. Four sections of the levees collapsed and water rushed in. Soon, 80% of the city was under water.

Putting It Back Together Again
The National Guard first used helicopters to drop hundreds of 3,000-pound sandbags--as big as adult elephants--onto the damaged levee areas in an effort to plug the holes. The Army Corps of Engineers also used large sheets of steel to create a temporary dam between one of the leaking canals and Lake Pontchartrain.

Once the levees have been patched, city engineers will begin the enormous job of pumping all of the water out of the waterlogged city. When will New Orleans be dry? Depending on the weather, it could take between three and six months, according to Colonel Richard Wagenaar, the corp's senior official in New Orleans. New pumps may help get the job done faster, but it will still mean months of terrible hardship for hundreds of thousands of people waiting to get back to what's left of their homes and belongings.

In the months ahead, experts will study and debate different ways to make the city floodproof from future hurricanes. It is a project that will surely take many years.

Next: America's Grand Plan