Isaac gives New Orleans' new flood system its first real test

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Seven years ago nearly to the day, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans with a tidal surge that defeated the city's flood defenses. Now the Crescent City has a new weapon to fight Hurricane Isaac -- a world-class flood-defense system that cost $14.5 billion.

For the first time, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Tuesday morning moved gigantic floodgates into place at the upper end of Lake Borgne, closing a two-mile-(3.2-km)long barrier that stands 26-feet (7.9-meters) high. Known to local officials as "The Great Wall," it forms a first line of defense to protect low-lying neighborhoods like the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish from a tidal surge from the Gulf of Mexico.

The barrier is the largest of its kind in the world and just one element of a 350-mile network of giant pumps, bilges and earthen works designed to assure New Orleans residents that they are safe.

"For the people of the city there is a great sense of security that is now in place," New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said.

The upgraded levee system, which includes 73 floodgates in five parishes, is designed to protect against a Category Three hurricane. That's the level of fury Katrina had attained on August 29, 2005, when it sent a tidal surge that flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, killed 1,500 people and caused more than $80 billion in damage.

The new levees have been a major factor in New Orleans' viability after Katrina, said John Barry, author of "Rising Tide," a history of the great Mississippi flood of 1927 who also serves on the board of New Orleans levee district.

"Nobody would have the confidence to put any money into it or live" in the city without the new system, Barry said.

On Tuesday, the Army Corps, charged with the task of protecting New Orleans from flooding, also closed the gate of the nearby Seabrook Floodgate Complex, another huge link in the city's protective ring.

Federal, state and local officials gathered with reporters behind a massive floodgate at the 17th Street Canal, which was breached with disastrous results during Katrina's onslaught. Lake Pontchartrain flowed freely into the surrounding neighborhood, killing dozens of people and submerging homes in water as deep as 17 feet.

The Corps of Engineers' local commander said it won't happen again.

"This structure and the surge barrier did not even exist in 2005," Colonel Edward Fleming, commander of the Corps' New Orleans District, told Reuters. "Now we fight the surge 13 miles outside of downtown New Orleans," he said. "We're not fighting surge in people's back yards."

Throughout the day, public officials reiterated their confidence in the new or improved levees and floodwalls and huge new floodgates that now supplement the network of interior canals and pumping stations that have long served New Orleans and surrounding parishes during storms.

The city's 24 pumping stations can handle over 29 billion gallons a day (110 billion liters), which is more than the flow of the Ohio River, the nation's fifth-largest river.

Taking note of the large pumps at the site that pump water out of the canal and around the closed floodgates during storms, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said coordination of the various pieces of flood protection is a crucial part of the overall system.

"With the elevated rainfall we're about to see, it's important that all these pumps work in tandem," Jindal said.

Landrieu, accompanied by officials from the local Sewerage and Water Board, which operates the interior pumping stations, said he is confident that all the pieces of the flood-protection system will function well during the coming storm, but that doesn't mean the pumps will be able to keep up with 10 or more inches of rain falling within a short time.

"I'm concerned at how slow this storm is moving," Landrieu said, noting that Isaac's forward progress has been about seven miles per hour, giving it more time to rain. "A slow-moving storm can cause a flood event inside the city, and then we could have a search-and-rescue challenge on our hands," he said.

Alice Spiller, who was about to settle in for the evening with her sons in her renovated home in the Gentilly neighborhood, said she was feeling confident the London Avenue Canal a half-block away would hold through the hurricane.

The canal breached on both sides during Katrina, and Spiller's previous home was a victim. "I lost everything," she said on Tuesday.

But the work done by the Corps of Engineers since then was enough to convince her it was safe to buy another home in the same neighborhood. "I think we're safe now," Spiller said. "I think we're gonna be all right."

(Editing by Chris Baltimore and Philip Barbara)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/isaac-gives-orleans-flood-system-first-real-test-005327753.html

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