03-01-2006 - Human World

sagar: Author=’Jorge Salazar’ program=’4805′ video=”Water pours through broken levees in New Orleans on August 30, 2005. Can the Big Easy get back to normal? Engineer Mead Allison says it can happen, with help. Read the Earth & Sky interview with Allison. (USACE photo)_DB:_ This is Earth & Sky. When Katrina battered the Gulf Coast in August of 2005, the hurricane and subsequent flooding left more than 1,000 people dead. New Orleans is still three-quarters empty.

_JB:_ “Robert Bea”:robert-bea-interview is a civil engineer at University of California, Berkeley. He’s part of an independent team funded by the National Science Foundation to investigate why New Orleans’ levees failed. Dr. Bea talked to Earth & Sky about what he called “remarkable progress” rebuilding the levees.

_Robert Bea:_ They’ve been able to stabilize most of the breach sites, so that water intrusion is now very minimal.

_DB:_ Hurricane season begins again in June. Earth & Sky asked Dr. Bea if New Orleans’ levees will be ready.

_Robert Bea:_ And, to think that we can get it done by the first of June in 2006, I think is potentially seriously misleading people into this false sense of confidence regarding the level of protection that they’ve actually got. My personal opinion is that the level of protection is not adequate to confront the kinds of severe storms that can turn this area back into a soup bowl filled with water and people’s lives.

_JB:_ Dr. Bea said that with enough time, effort, and resources, reasonable, long-term protection for New Orleans, in his words, “can be done.” We’re Block and Byrd for Earth & Sky.

Written by EarthSky