Ummm…. did I miss something? From the Chartered Institute of Building:
New Orleans flood protection gets upgrade – but not in time for next hurricane season
Five months before the deadline of 1st June 2006 for restoring the New Orleans levee system to the Category 3 storm protection status it held at the time of the Hurricane Katrina onslaught last August, the White House agreed in mid-December to rebuilding the system to Category 4 standards
I had not seen it, but thanks for bringing it to my attention. I wasn’t sure what they agreed to, and I think everyone’s hedging because few really want to spend the money.
The best I’d heard is that in bringing the levee to pre-Katrina strength, there would be some fixes so that it would truly do what they predicted it would do — that is, be Cat. 3 protection.
It’s no surprise, however, that experts think it won’t get done on time (June 1).
Actually, that’s the best I’d heard also (Cat 3 that was supposed to be there).
I’ve written to this publication asking for sources.
Not correct. The president signed the law to provide $2.9 billion to fix the levees on Dec. 30. His last-minute proposal, offered only once he realized congress was going to proceed without him, provides money to fix what we had and add three improvements: 1. provide backslope protection, 2. close the outfall canals at the lake, and 3. improve pumping stations. Only items 1 and 2 were included in the final bill. There has been no legislation passed to increase our level of protection to date. I’ve been following this issue closely.
Let me clarify: it’s the news report that is incorrect. Polimom is right. We had approximately Category 3 protection before, and we’re getting approximately Category 3 protection after.