Water Institute to probe Isaac flooding

The Water Institute of the Gulf, an independent applied research organization that began operations in Baton Rouge this year, has been tapped to investigate whether the new $14.6 billion levee protection system in the New Orleans area contributed to flooding in areas outside the system during and after Hurricane Isaac, says Garret Graves, Louisiana’s top coastal official. He says the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ pre-storm models showed that any additional flooding tied to the New Orleans system only would be a minimal addition to what those areas would have had anyway: for example, an extra one to three inches on the Northshore. The corps is going back and reviewing those models, Graves says, and the state has asked TWIG to “take an independent look.” “The corps has some impressive capabilities,” he says. “[But] we don’t want them to look at themselves in the mirror and ask if they did a good job or not. We want to have some independent, third-party verification that their modeling results are accurate.” The institute officially began operations in February with the hiring of Charles “Chip” Groat as founding president and CEO. For a Business Report story about the institute’s founding, click here here. —David Jacobs