Levee System Increased Hurricane Katrina's Wrath

Louisiana's levee system has once again made headlines. According to hurricane expert, Ivor van Heerden, the magnitude of Katrina's storm surge in Mississippi was partly the fault of the Louisiana levee system.

Van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, described how sea water from the storm built up against Mississippi River levees in Louisiana, and when the eye of Katrina passed over and began its migration to Mississippi, it took the wall of water with it.

Had there been no levee, he said, the water would have fanned over the wetlands, and the eye would have carried far less to local shores. Van Heerden is also a civil and environmental engineering professor at LSU.

Van Heerden is often credited with having predicted Katrina. In the years before the storm, he created computer models showing how New Orleans would flood if a category 3 storm hit. The levees were built based on outdated models, even though new ones were available. Some levee sections were built on sand, easily allowing water to breach.

"It was a man-made catastrophe with a hurricane trigger," he said. "What happens to sand castles on beaches? They don't last."

He said his research fell on deaf ears, as outlined in his book, The Storm - What Went Wrong and Why During Hurricane Katrina - the Inside Story from One Louisiana Scientist. He wants an inquest like the 9/11 commission to look into the failures that led to flooding in New Orleans and destruction along the Coast.

To protect Mississippi in the future from Katrina-like storms, he said, efforts must go toward restoring wetlands and rebuilding the barrier islands. Giant waves in the open ocean become smaller when they break over the islands.