"The Army Corps of Engineers is embarking on studies of potential improvements to the east bank and West Bank hurricane levee systems because portions of the post-Katrina levee system are likely to be inadequate to reduce risk from stormwater surges created by a so-called 100-year storm as early as 2023.
That initial engineering conclusion was contained in twin Federal Register notices published Tuesday (April 2) by the corps that announce the beginning of the studies to reevaluate whether an upgrade to sustain the 100-year level of hurricane storm damage risk reduction “is technically feasible, environmentally acceptable, and economically justified.”
Concern about whether and when the new levee system will fall behind the increased risk faced by the New Orleans area from hurricane storm surges resulting from climate change increasing storm intensities and sea level rise, and from continued sinking of soils beneath the levees and wetlands that protect them, is nothing new."
Mark Schleifstein reports for the New Orleans Times-Picayune April 3, 2019.
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