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Hurricane Katrina: An Overview of Impacts to New Orleans and Preliminary Assessment of Response Effo

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Title: Hurricane Katrina: An Overview of Impacts to New Orleans and Preliminary Assessment of Response Effo


1
Hurricane Katrina An Overview of Impacts to New
Orleans and Preliminary Assessment of Response
Efforts
  • Laura J .Steinberg
  • Associate ProfessorDepartment of Civil and
    Environmental Engineering
  • Tulane University (I think)
  • New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
  • Hatice Sengul
  • Graduate Student
  • Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Tulane University (I think)
  • New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
  • Con appunti a margine di Scira

2
Timeline
  • Friday, Aug. 26 Katrina headed to New Orleans,
    Category 4 will arrive Monday 1.3 million
    people in metro area 500,000 in NO
  • Saturday morning voluntary evacuation
  • Sunday mandatory evacuation, Katrina wobbles
  • Monday morning Katrina hits some damage,
    minor levee break, nightmare is averted
  • Tuesday morning 17th Street Canal levee breaks,
    all heck breaks loose, water starts to fill city,
    nightmare scenario comes true

3
Spatial Dimension of the Disaster
  • New Orleans metro area
  • Gulf of Mexico coast Louisiana, Mississippi
    (Biloxi), Alabama (Mobile)
  • North to Jackson, MS
  • Spatial gradient of impacts (from coast to inland
    area)
  • Gulf Coast storm surge, winds
  • New Orleans levee breech and flooding

4
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5
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6
The levee breach (on the 17th St.-300 to 500 ft
) was a turning point for Katrina-from better
than expected to worse
7
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8
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9
Thursday, Sept. 1
  • Thursday 80 of the city is flooded. Crews try
    to fix levee breech, many stranded in homes,
    supplies fail to reach Superdome and Convention
    Center evacuees, hospitals in dire straits,
    rescuers work around the clock, National Guard
    and US Army, Navy arrive.

10
Friday, Sept. 2 and after
  • Friday and after main levee breech is fixed,
    pumps come on-line, water pumped to Lake
    Pontchartrain, evacuees bused to Houston,
    hold-outs urged to evacuate, house to house
    operation for rescue and/or body count. No power,
    no water, no telephone, no cell phone. Dozens of
    responder organizations lacking coordination.
    Environmental and public health catastrophe
    brewing.

11
What we knew before this
  • Flooding of New Orleans could not have been
    foreseen.
  • Public and expert knowledge of problem for years
  • 2002 T-P Pulitzer prize winning article,
  • Recent National Geographic article
  • Discussion on local news every hurricane season
  • Scientific studies on-going, some funded by the
    State of Louisiana, on what might happen
  • Corps of Engineers plan to upgrade to Cat. 5
    protection
  • Possiamo aggiungere McPhee, Il controllo della
    natura, Adelphi, 1994

12
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13
Why did this happen?
  • Flooding
  • City below sea-level, insufficient deployment of
    technology
  • Coastal wetlands disappearing at rate of 40 acres
    per day first line of defense. Calls to restore
    them have been met with indifference.
  • No planning for levee breech, insufficient
    deployment of response teams to repair

14
Why did this happen?
  • Dismayingly poor rescue efforts
  • Insufficient deployment of resources
  • Lack of command coordination
  • Lack of communication
  • No planning for this eventuality
  • Evacuees refused admittance to dry land
  • Incompetent leadership

15
Broader Scale Why did this happen?
  • The thought of flooding an entire city is
    unfathomable to Americans.
  • The cost to protect New Orleans was in the range
    of 10s of billions of dollars even New
    Orleanians believed it was a lost cause to ask
    for that much.
  • Not a matter of individual owners doing
    mitigation as in California must be a
    government project.
  • Lots of emphasis on private vehicle evacuation
    routes in response planning those without
    vehicles left out of the planning ( use the
    Superdome dealt with the wind issue but not the
    flooding issue)
  • Vulnerable populations left to fend for
    themselves.

16
Environmental Effects and NatechsWetlands
  • Coastline remaining Chandeleur chain of barrier
    islands virtually wiped out. Wildlife habitats
    destroyed. Dunes are gone. (positive feedback)
    Louisiana's wetlands represent 30 percent of the
    coastal wetlands in the lower 48, but 90 percent
    of the coastal wetland loss. Loses 40 acres of
    coastal wetlands per day.
  • "These wetlands are our first line of defense
    from hurricanes -- for every 2.7 miles of
    wetlands, storm surges are reduced by about one 1
    foot.
  • Coast2050 is attempting to help build wetlands
    back. Much more is needed.

17
Environmental Effects and NatechsWater
  • Oil has oozed from cars, trucks and boats caught
    in the flood.  Up to 20,000 leaking underground
    storage tanks.
  • DEQ chief "Everywhere we look there's a spill.
    It all adds up. There's almost a solid sheen over
    the area right now." 
  • Household hazardous chemicals insecticides,
    paint-thinner, cleaning supplies. Also,
    pharmaceuticals.
  • Approximately 170 sources of leaking hydrocarbons
    and natural gas identified by Wednesday, Sept. 7.
  • Dissolved oxygen nearly zero. Bacteria is
    consuming organics in the water - dead animals,
    leaves, sewage, and debris.
  • Leaks from hurricane damage or operational
    problems from industrial facilities.

18
Environmental Effects and NatechsWater
  • 85,000 gallon tank of crude oil at refinery
    outside of New Orleans leaking. Containment dike
    is damaged and response is hampered by flood
    waters.
  • 68,000 barrels leaked from a storage tank on the
    Gulf

19
Environmental Effects and NatechsWater
  • Lake Pontchartrain heavily polluted waters
    being pumped into Lake Pontchartrain will
    eventually go out to the Gulf of Mexico.
  • Potential to stir up polluted sediments
    throughout the region.
  • Effects on ecosystems and fishing industry are
    still unknown.

20
Environmental Effects and NatechsFires and Air
Pollution
  • Several fires reported burning no water
    pressure and firefighters employed in search and
    rescue, not property loss.
  • Fire reported at at least one oil refinery.

21
Environmental Effects and NatechsSolid Waste
  • 60 million to 90 million tons of solid waste -
    wrecked homes, cars, junk, metals and other
    materials. Some of it with toxic materials such
    as asbestos.
  • Wood waste may spread Formosan termites.

22
Public health challenges
  • West nile virus
  • Pathogens, toxics in water
  • Possibility of explosions from natural gas lines
  • Hazardous sludges on drained land
  • No power for cooling, refrigeration
  • Lack of food
  • Broken sewer and water lines
  • More than 500 Louisiana sewage plants damaged or
    destroyed, including 25 major ones.
  • Will have to clean, disinfect, and test 450
    community water systems which are presently
    inoperable.

23
Conclusions
  • Katrina and its aftermath offers many examples of
    the interconnectedness of systems and the
    necessity to plan and respond in a holistic
    manner. The need to consider cascading and
    escalating failures is illustrated in the
    continually unfolding stories emanating from this
    tragedy.
  • Katrina was a man-made disaster in the sense that
    the city is built in a vulnerable location,
    global warming likely contributed to the strength
    of the hurricane, planning was negligent in
    considering vulnerable populations, technology
    and personnel were insufficiently deployed to
    mitigate and respond to the disaster, and
    warnings of the potential for catastrophic
    flooding were systematically ignored.

24
Conclusions
  • Katrina and its aftermath created a multitude of
    environmental problems which are still being
    assessed. Known problems include
  • water polluted from leaking oil storage tanks,
    sewer system contents, hazmat releases from
    industrial facilities, and household and street
    debris.
  • Air pollution from fires and hazmat releases.
  • Tons of solid waste, some of it hazardous.
  • Decimated wetlands and biological habitat.
  • Environmental problems which will morph into
    public health problems including difficulty in
    supplying clean water, resurgence of west nile
    virus, contaminated land surfaces, and lack of
    heating and cooling.

25
Concetti che vedremo nel corso
  • Hazard caratteristiche evento (uragano,
    riscaldamento terrestre)
  • Vulnerabilità fisica NO sotto il livello del
    mare, posizione rispetto a hazard
  • Vulnerbilità sistemica dovuta allinterdipendenza
    tra sistemi urbani e territoriali

26
Concetti che vedremo nel corso
  • Vulnerabilità organizzativa carenze del sistema
    di protezione civile
  • Danni fisici allagamenti, beni distrutti
  • Danni fisici indotti inquinamenti di vario tipo,
    incendi, etc (i cosiddetti na-tech)
  • Danni indiretti????
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