Defective construction responsible for almost 600 deaths in New Orleans
"Nearly 600 people who died because of Hurricane Katrina might have survived had floodwalls on two New Orleans canals not collapsed, a Knight Ridder analysis of where bodies were found after the storm indicates," reports the Nation.
The walls collapsed "because of poor design, shoddy construction or improper maintenance - after the height of the storm." For more on defective design of the flood protection system by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers by clicking here and here.
Hat tip to the Construction Law Blog for pointing to the article in the Nation.
Some important points to keep in mind:
1. We are still finding bodies in the Lower Ninth Ward. I recently posted on my blog about this. I'm not surprised that the current body count shows more dead in Lakeview--they haven't finished collecting the dead in other areas yet.
2. Dr. Van Heerden, touted by the press as an "LSU Hurricane Expert", is neither an engineer nor a meteorologist. What credentials does he have for analyzing the design of a hurricane protection system, or the hydraulics of flooding, or the effects of hurricane storm surges? His testimony would not be accepted by any court. The American Society of Civil Engineers is currenly studying the failure of the hurricane protection system and will release a credible report in the coming months. I will reserve judgement until then.
3. For now, the only thing we know is "defective" in the design on New Orleans' hurricane protection system is that it's too low. The current system was designed for a mere Category 3 storm with a return of about 100 years. I posted on my blog about what terrible odds these are--would you get on a plane if the odds were 1 in 100 that the plane would crash? New Orleans needs real protection from hurricanes. The Dutch use 1 in 10,000. That's the kind of protection we can have confidence in.
Peace,
Tim