ASCE Testifies Before Senate; Releases Report on Levee System Failure During Hurricane Katrina

On Nov. 2, technical assessment teams from ASCE and University of California, Berkeley jointly released the Data Report on the Performance of the New Orleans Levee Systems in Hurricane Katrina. The report details observations made from Oct. 3-14 when the teams conducted onsite inspections and gathered data on the 17th Street Canal, London Avenue Canal and Industrial Canal levee breaches, among others in New Orleans. ASCE assessment team leader Peter G. Nicholson, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Graduate Program chair at the University of Hawaii, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs concerning the team's observations.

Nicholson recommended preparing the New Orleans levee system for the next hurricane season. He said ASCE believes Congress should enact a National Levee Inspection and Safety Program modeled on the successful National Dam Safety Program. The levee program, he said, "should include a national inventory of levees, particularly those that protect large, heavily populated urban areas." He encouraged Congress to establish an independent advisory panel responsible for envisioning the future of the Gulf Coast and proposing ways to begin the rebuilding efforts. Nicholson addressed commonly observed issues such as: the role construction materials played in the degree of damage caused to different parts of the levee system; the frequent presence of "transitions" between different sections of the levees and the problems they caused; and how soil instabilities appear likely to have been responsible for failure of the wall systems at two of the levee breeches.

» View Peter Nicholson's full Senate Testimony (PDF size 62 KB)

» View Data Report