my earlier post came while i was posting from my phone so it was more prickish than i meant it to be. i'll try to keep this short because this isn't a Katrina post and it isn't a Katrina board.

Katrina was a Category 3 storm at her 3rd landfall (which is when it affected the New Orleans metro area) at the LA/MS border when you measure the wind speed. However, she was still pushing a Category 5 storm surge at this time, judging by the insane damage done to the MS Gulf Coast.

however, Katrina was around a Category 1-2 hurricane in the New Orleans Metro Area because it was further away from the point of landfall. the Outfall Canal Floodwalls were supposed to be built to withstand the surge that would be brought by your average Category 3 hurricane but they were built using substandard materials and in many cases were not built to proper specifications. i believe the London Avenue Canal did not even reach a dangerous level of water against the floodwall when it broke.

so basically, those levees shouldn't have failed during Katrina. but even if they had anticipated them breaking, there really wouldn't have been much for them to do other than drop sandbags which is what they did.

again, sorry if i came off as a dick.

This post was edited on 5/10/10 at 12:43 pm

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Posted by BROffshoreTigerFan

Edmond, OK

Member since Oct 2007

10004 posts

Posted on 5/10/10 at 12:59 pm to YatTigah

quote:
my earlier post came while i was posting from my phone so it was more prickish than i meant it to be

I know how it is to try and post something with any detail from the phone.

I think that's where a lot of people are confused (I'm included in this also) because of the different levels for different aspects of the storm; ie., the storm being a level 2/3 when it hit NO, versus the storm surge being considered the strengh of a level 5 when it hit NO (I hope I'm wording that right).

I'll admit that I didn't pay much attention to the levees and the fact they were breaking (besides just being sick to my stomach that even worse things were happening to people that had already suffered enough), or why they were breaking, mostly because it didn't personally effect me. I didn't live in the area.

I did spend about 2 weeks there volunteering and doing S&R trips, but the levees didn't enter my mind there.

You didn't really come off as a dick. I like posting accurate info (except on the OT, I don't mind throwing some lied about e-cred around in there), and I just wanted to know exactly what was incorrect about it.

It was a bad question to try and speculate and answer on my part anyway.