Army Corps of Engineers unfazed by approach of Isaac

Almost seven years ago to the day, a system of hurricane levees and floodwalls built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers infamously failed to protect New Orleans—crumbling in the face of a storm weaker than it was designed to repel, causing the deaths of more than 1,300 citizens, and inflicting crippling infrastructure wounds from which the city is still struggling to heal, The Times-Picayune reports. Yet as Isaac, predicted to make landfall as a Category 2 hurricane, approached a new corps system designed to withstand a Category 3 storm, local officials expressed nothing but confidence. “It’s like comparing apples and oranges,” says Garret Graves, chairman of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. “Unfortunately, there were some very painful lessons learned in [Hurricane] Katrina.” Post-Katrina investigators say those lessons spanned the entire culture of storm protection—including engineering and construction, the politics of funding, and the importance of local oversight. The result is the new, $14.5 billion Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System, a combination of higher and stronger levees, walls, floodgates and pumps built by the corps but monitored by a new system of state levee authorities staffed by engineers and unpaid civic activists. All of it has been carefully watched as never before by local media and community organizations. See an infographic on the system and how it functions here; and read the full story here.