TOTAL INFORMATION ANALYSIS

Friday, July 14, 2006

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. Congress passed as part of its "aid" package money to build giant floodgates at the base of New Orleans' drainage canals. This move was based on the idea that the concrete floodwalls of the canals collapsed due to the storm surge brought in to the canals from Lake Pontchartrani. The problem with this theory, of course, is that the storm surge was well within the capacities of the canals -- and all evidence indicates the levees and floodwalls along New Orleans' drainage canals were sabotaged by explosives under the cover of the storm.

Now, with these "floodgates" closing off the canals every time a storm threatens, New Orleans will be compromised in its ability to keep the city dry. The Army Corps, who built the exploding floodwalls, will now hold the ability to flood the city with a flick of a switch. Regular floods induced by this engineering boondoggle will be a huge hindrance on the ability of the city to grow. This will drive up insurance rates and pave the way for greater depopulation of New Orleans, in tune with the United Nations' Malthusian Agenda 21 plan.

More from Times-Picayune July 7:

"The new floodgates and pumps in the 17th Street Canal won’t be functional by Sunday as the Army Corps of Engineers had predicted, and the corps says it can’t set a new target date.

[...]

Congress funded construction of the multimillion-dollar floodgates in late December to keep storm surges out of the canals and reduce pressure on their suspect floodwalls. As it stands now, the corps won’t allow more than five feet of surge into the 17th Street Canal. If a tropical system threatens before the floodgates and the corps’ pumps are operable, sheetpile will be used to block surge at the Old Hammond Highway bridge.

The London and Orleans canals are in better shape. There, St. Germain said, the gates already can be closed and the temporary pumps operated if tropical weather threatens.

At the Orleans Canal, which carries substantially less water than the London and 17th canals, the corps already can match the pumping capacity normally provided by the Orleans Sewerage & Water Board: 2,200 cubic feet per second of water moving out of the canal around the closed gates and into Lake Pontchartrain.

At London, however, the temporary pumping capacity is only 2,800 cfs, a significant decline from the 8,000 cfs that S&WB pumps can provide when all are operational. Corps officials have said they will try to supplement that figure with portable pumps.,

An even greater loss of capacity is occurring at 17th Street, where the S&WB’s Pump Station No. 6, located along Orpheum Avenue, can move water at the rate of 10,000 cfs when all of its giant pumps are operating.That won’t happen when the floodgates are closed because city pumps will only be allowed to move the volume of water that the smaller, corps pumps downstream can handle.
[...]
The corps new plan, the one now being examined by Boh Brothers and the pump supply company, calls for adding another two pumps on the east side for another 450 cfs, and 23 portable pumps on the floodgate deck capable of adding another 1,000 cfs.

Previously, the corps had planned to station a gargantuan crane on the floodgate deck to lower the gates against a surge this season, a temporary measure that will be discarded once hydraulically powered winches are added before the start of next storm season.

The deck will instead be used to house portable pumps that can’t be placed on the ground . . .

Engineers are currently designing for four more temporary pumps on the canal’s west side to add another 900 cfs to the mix, but that will come in a later contract modification when it the plan is complete.

In all, the corps has plans for pumps that total 5,150 cfs for this storm season, which ends Nov. 30. But just how much of capacity will be provided at any one time — and whether it will be on-line during the height of the season from mid-August until late September - remains a mystery
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Labels: Katrina

| Posted at 16:18 | PERMA-LINK |

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