After reading about the canal system we decided to take a closer look.
We learned about how the tragic events of Hurricane Katrina were made even more disastrous by many canal failures, happening in different parts of the city almost simultaneously! More than 50 different canal breaches!
We visited the site of the worst of the canal failures - the 17th Street Canal. Walked along the canal walls and got some photos.
This canal's humble beginnings can be traced back to the 1850s when it was dug by hand for a distance of 8kms through swampy land from the Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain to allow floodwaters to drain into the lake.
After Hurricane Betsy of 1965, improved flood protection for the city was mandated and led to an increase of the size and height of the canal. Hurricane Georges of 1998 caused such an increase in the water level of Lake Pontchartrain that an unprecedented amount of water was forced up the 17th Street Canal. A report noted that in several places the water came within inches of overflowing the canal wall. Improvements began in 1999 and by the beginning of 2005, city engineers considered the canal to be in good shape.
Fast forward to August 2005...despite the water being below the danger zone, the canal was breached by a tremendous storm surge during Katrina. The break quickly opened to a gap measuring 450 foot long, allowing billions of gallons of water to rush into the adjacent Lakewood neighbourhood and, almost immediately, flattened homes and carried more than 30 people away to their deaths. The death toll in this neighbourhood alone would eventually number in the hundreds...and were mostly seniors.
In the weeks and months that following Katrina, extensive analysis was carried out to determine why the canal walls failed. Sadly, the team of engineers determined it was a design flaw in the pilings rather than the strength of the storm surge, that led to the failure
Here's a shot of current day 17th Street Canal
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