National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Friday, August 29, 2008

Photo: New Orleans' Rebuilt Levees "Riddled With Flaws"


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Water pools behind the newly rebuilt floodwall along New Orleans' Industrial Canal, one of the barriers that failed during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

University of California engineer Bob Bea says the water probably seeps under the pilings from the canal—which could undermine the floodwall and lead to breaching in the next big storm.

The Army Corps of Engineers, which reconstructed the wall, says the source is likely a broken water main.

Photograph by Tyrone Turner/NGS