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New Orleans Levee Report Completed By Panel Including University of Texas at Austin Engineer A report that recommends steps to reduce hurricane damage in New Orleans was released today by an expert engineering panel of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The 84-page report, “The New Orleans Hurricane Protection System: What Went Wrong and Why,” targets the public and policymakers, and complements and synthesizes the thousands of pages released so far by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during their post-Katrina investigation. Dr. Robert Gilbert, the risk expert on the ASCE panel and a civil engineering professor at The University of Texas at Austin, noted that their risk analysis confirms the vulnerable nature of the city’s hurricane protection system. |
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Photo by Erin McCarley, 5/2007 |
Photo at left: Dr. Robert Gilbert, a civil engineering professor at The University of Texas at Austin, near a dam along the Colorado River in Austin, Texas. |
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Photo by Erin McCarley, 5/2007 |
In the report, the international risk expert and other panel members estimated the New Orleans' levees and floodwalls had put lives at risk at a 1,000-fold higher rate than considered minimally acceptable for a major U.S. dam. |
