Will the Levees Hold?
Even rain from another storm could threaten New Orleans’ precarious levees. By Amanda Paulson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor NEW ORLEANS — When a barge evidently busted the industrial canal levee near Tennessee Street in the fury of hurricane Katrina, it flattened 800 feet of the massive metal walls, causing an enormous wave that wiped out six blocks of homes and destroyed most of this New Orleans East neighborhood. Today, the breach is patched, at least temporarily. But the levee is weakened for miles, and engineers worry that makeshift repairs – tons of sand that fill the gap, about 10 feet lower than the rest of the levee – won’t withstand even a mild wave. Now, as hurricane Rita steams toward Texas, it isn’t hurricane-force winds that scare this city so much as the prospect of buckets of rain. The Army Corps of Engineers say the levees can handle just 6 inches of rain and a storm surge of 10 to 12 feet. “If the storm surges come up, this will all wash right into t
