The Truth About Hurricane Katrina

See Wizbang for an excellent set of Katrina analysis and why New Orleans flooded. They have the video taken by New Orleans firefighters as the 17th street canal floodwall was actually in the process of breaking during Katrina, and links to information that counters most of the conventional wisdom of why the levee system failed and the city flooded. You must see this video. Paul at Wizbang writes:

The bottom line is, Katrina’s storm surge did not wash the wall away. As you may remember, water had been seeping under the floodwall at the break location for about a year before Katrina. The ground under the levee was soaked and ready to give at any moment…

New Orleans was doomed with or without Katrina, we just didn’t know it. A good high tide puts more water in the canal than this. As the video shows, the water was barely higher than normal levels. The walls could have failed on a decent high tide.

And for a total mind blowing topper he says:

What I will say next will probably completely throw you. Katrina saved probably over 50,000 lives.

That levee was doomed. If it had failed without notice, the death toll would have been measured in tens of thousands. There would be no evacuation, no preparation, no Feds at all. (such that they were anyway) no Coast Guard in choppers etc. Tens of thousands of people would have been dead in hours and tens of thousands more would have died on 120 degree rooftops waiting for rescue. It would have been unimaginable. – More unimaginable.

“Luckily" –and I groan when I say that- Katrina allowed the city to be evacuated.

Man, oh man-read the whole thing.

vadkins
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