hurricane George

hurricane George

          A very massive group of levees may be all that is in the way of lower lying New
Orleans and destruction with a visit from Hurricane Georges. Without the levee system
and concrete flood walls Georges could have catastrophic effects in New Orleans. But
with this   man-made hurricane protection system protecting the city people. New
Orleans is spared the casualties and damage past storms have wrought. The levee system
is important because the city is like a saucer 6 feet below sea level and is surrounded by
lakes, swamps, marshes and the Mississippi River. The fact is, we are living in a large,
shallow bowl with a levee around it,'' said Oliver Houck, a Tulane University law
professor whose major is water resources. The New Orleans   area and location have
allowed hurricanes and floods to prey on its residents since as early as 1718. A year after
New Orleans was laid out, a low levee had to be constructed. As the city grew, the need
for a better levee system has been a lasting issue. The levees were built taller and
stronger, but hurricanes in 1915 and 1947 flooded the city killing about 200 and 47
people. The current hurricane protection system was approved by Congress in 1965 after
Hurricane Betsy killed 81 people in southern Louisiana. Hundreds of millions of dollars
has produced what may be the world's most elaborate flood protection system, said Jim
Addison, chief of public affairs for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' New Orleans
District, which builds and monitors the levees. The levees along the south shore of Lake
Pontchartrain and other key areas are designed to protect the city from a fast-moving
hurricane of Georges power. The levees work together with channels that shift flood
waters to strong pumping stations. Then water is sent back into the lake. But Georges is
moving slowly, meaning up to 25 inches of rain could fall on New Orleans and the wind
could push the lake over the levees.

          Hurricane Georges caused an...