New Orleans Flooded in Wake of Hurricane Katrina

Willie Drye
for National Geographic News

August 31, 2005

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Broken levees are allowing floodwaters to pour into New Orleans, endangering thousands of residents in a city that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina Monday.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported on its Web site Tuesday that floodwaters rushed into the streets when canal levees on opposite sides of the city ruptured. Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco responded by ordering everyone out of New Orleans.

Dozens of deaths across the Gulf Coast already have been attributed to Hurricane Katrina. Authorities fear flooding in New Orleans could increase the toll and create a potentially serious public health problem.

The Federal Emergency Management Administration's regional office in Dallas, Texas, is coordinating the rescue effort for New Orleans. But a FEMA employee in Dallas refused to answer questions this morning about the agency's response and hung up without giving her name.

New Orleans is below sea level and is crisscrossed by canals connecting Lake Pontchartrain, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico. Levees were built around the canals to protect the city from flooding when surrounding water levels rise.

Hurricane Katrina's 140-mile-an-hour (225-kilometer-an-hour) winds pushed a 20-foot (6-meter) storm surge onto the Louisiana coastline. The storm's powerful winds continued to force raging waters against the city's levees as Katrina roared northward into neighboring Mississippi.

The levees initially held, but gave way Tuesday.

The Times-Picayune reported that a 200-foot (61-meter) break opened in the levee on the 17th Street Canal in the western part of the city.

On the eastern side of town, two breaks opened in the levee on the Industrial Canal, the newspaper reported. The combined length of the breaks in the Industrial Canal is about 500 feet (152 meters), and more fractures are expected.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working to close the breaches, the Times-Picayune said. In the meantime, life in New Orleans will be dangerous and uncomfortable.

"The significant problems they're facing are having (drinkable) water, clean food, a way to dispose of human waste, and shelter," said Bernard H. Eichold, the public health officer for nearby Mobile County, Alabama.

"Those are essential items, along with health care," he said. "They have none of those in New Orleans."

The flooding will penetrate the city's sewer system and release untreated sewage into the streets, Eichold said.

"There are numerous diseases that can spread when people are exposed to human waste," Eichold said. "The most common will be gastro-intestinal illnesses."

The first priority is getting to the people who need help and moving them to safety, Eichold said. Engineers, public health workers, and city officials then face a staggering challenge to make New Orleans habitable again.

"The real issue is when can they get the breach in the levee sealed, how long will it take to pump the water out, when can the infrastructure be restored, and when can they get the sewer system back working," Eichold said.

"Then they have to get the electricity back on. It's a tremendous challenge. How long will it take? God, I don't know."

Eichold said the canals and levees are a familiar part of the colorful and unique experience of living in New Orleans.

"You're always aware of the water," he said. "There's no way to get in or out of the city without crossing water."

Eichold, who graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans and lived for nine years in the city, says he used to take walks on the levees in the springtime. Sometimes he noticed that the water level of the Mississippi River was higher than the road on the other side of the levee.

"The only thing keeping the water out was a big pile of dirt," he said.

The hurricane catastrophe in New Orleans will likely go down as one of the nation's most spectacular natural disasters. There have been only a few comparable events in U.S. history.

In 1900 a powerful hurricane sent a massive storm surge through Galveston, Texas, and killed at least 6,000 people. In 1928, the most powerful hurricane on record at that time roared across Florida's Lake Okeechobee, pushing a wall of water through several small lakeside towns and killing at least 2,000.

The death toll in New Orleans may not be as high as these earlier disasters, but a hurricane that makes one of the nation's largest cities uninhabitable is a stunning event.

"It's horrible," Eichold said. "A tremendous disaster. How do you describe it?"

Willie Drye is the author of Storm of the Century: The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, published by National Geographic.

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