According to the Associated Press, New Orleans’ dams, flood walls and sluices withstood the violent attack of Hurricane Ida after landing on Sunday. The success of the protection device was achieved after the federal government spent billions of dollars to upgrade it, which is in stark contrast to the failure of Hurricane Katrina 16 years ago.
Although New Orleans’ dams and flood walls provide New Orleans with a barrier against Ada, some neighboring communities have not been spared. According to the Associated Press, in Laplace, a western suburb of New Orleans, work on the dam protection system has only recently begun, and many residents had to be rescued from the floods caused by the hurricane.
During Hurricane Katrina, Marcia Jacob Hebert’s LaPlace home was not flooded, but she firmly believed that when she was evacuated in anticipation of Ada When you return, you will find it flooded.
“We didn’t encounter these problems until everyone else’s dikes worked,” Herbert said. “This may not be the only factor, but I do think it contributes.”
For more reports from the Associated Press, please see below.
Steve Helber/Associated Press Photo
John Vincent’s LaPlace subdistrict was flooded, and he also said that since the flood wall was built in other communities further east, the water level seems to have risen faster. He accused the dioceses of lack of coordination.
65-year-old Vincent said: “It now seems that any kind of storm can be submerged without anything.”
Christina Stephens, a spokesman for Governor John Bell Edwards, said that the New Orleans water pumps were powered by generators and were operating normally on Monday.
“The dike system works the way it should,” she said.
The two flood control districts of Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Bernard are responsible for overseeing the system. Neither school district reported any damage or overflow of the dam.
“The system works as designed,” said Nicholas Cali, the head of the western region of the Southeastern Louisiana Flood Control Bureau, which oversees the West Bank of Orleans and the Diocese of Jefferson.
The Eastern District of the Southeastern Louisiana Flood Protection Agency, which is responsible for most of the parishes of St. Bernard and the parishes of Orleans and Jefferson, also plans to check its systems on Monday but found no problems, according to regional director Kelly Chandler. She said a tidal barrier was opened on Monday morning to allow maritime traffic to pass through a major waterway.
“We started preparing for the storm the day after the last storm ended. This is exactly what we are going to do today,” Chandler said.
Andy Horowitz, a professor of history at Tulane University and the author of “Hurricane Katrina: A History, 1915-2015,” said that the dyke prevented Ida’s surge, which is “clearly good” information”. He added that this does not mean that a fragile city like New Orleans will not be flooded “in the face of a changing climate.”
“This does not mean that the lesson of Hurricane Ida is that the New Orleans metropolis has enough hurricane protection. It means that it has enough protection against this storm surge,” Horowitz said. “Because the system is being challenged by stronger and more frequent hurricanes. I think many experts are very worried that the level of protection in New Orleans is quite low.”
A federal judge in New Orleans ruled in 2009 that the failure of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to properly maintain and operate the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet was an important cause of the catastrophic flooding during Hurricane Katrina. The failure of a dyke near Lake Pontchartrain also flooded communities in New Orleans.
After Hurricane Katrina, the federal government spent $14.5 billion on projects aimed at strengthening New Orleans and surrounding suburbs south of Lake Pontchartrain from storm surges and flooding. The system starts with a huge tidal barrier in the east of the city, which is a 130-mile (210 km) ring designed to withstand a storm surge of approximately 30 feet (9 meters).
A dike project was recently started to protect tens of thousands of residents in other communities outside of Laplace and the New Orleans dike system. The project is not expected to be completed until 2024.
“I’m glad they are building a dam for us, but I’m worried about what will happen to the next group to the west,” Herbert said. “Water must flow somewhere. We can’t just keep passing water from person to person, from place to place.”
Bernardo Fallas, spokesperson for Phillips 66, said the company did not immediately obtain information about whether the collapse of the embankment in Plaquemines diocese affected its Alliance Refinery in Belle Chasse. Faras said that before Aidada, the refinery had been closed since Saturday.
“We will continue to conduct post-storm assessments of the refinery under safe conditions,” Faras said.
Steve Helber/Associated Press Photo
