A team of University of South Carolina civil engineers who have studied the failure of the 17th Street canal levee in New Orleans say they have found a cost-effective and efficient way to halt flooding caused by breached levees.
Like millions of Americans, Hanif Chaudhry watched as engineers raced against time to close the breached levee. But he watched with a civil engineer’s keen eye.
Dr. Hanif Chaudhry, chairman of USC’s department of civil and environmental engineering, and his colleague, Dr. Ahmed Kassem, a civil-engineering research professor, examined the breach of the New Orleans levee and found that a concept for closing cofferdams – temporary barriers made of wood, steel or concrete that hold back water – may prevent the widespread flooding that results from levee failure.
The attempts to close the breached levee failed because the velocity of the water flowing through the breach was too high for the size of the sandbags that were used, Chaudhry said.
n the hydraulics laboratory, USC’s researchers constructed a scale model of the canal, the breach and the surrounding area, which included a number of homes. One foot on the model represents about 50 feet on the levee.
They utilized “similitude relationships” to produce, to scale, the flow velocity, flow rate, and sandbags used in New Orleans to close the breached levee in New Orleans.
Then, using a concept for closing rivers, the USC researchers added stones between the homes to obstruct the water. The houses also acted as barriers to the water.
Although the obstruction didn’t stop the flow completely, it backed up water to the breach location, reducing the flow velocity and allowing the use of smaller sandbags. Researchers believe that if the same method had been used in New Orleans, the city’s flooding would have been much less.
This technique has been used for closing cofferdams for decades.
It ain’t a new suggestion; but, folks should revisit the old Dave Packard concept of “management by walking around”. Peer over the professional barriers and see what folks in other disciplines are doing to resolve similar questions.
The classic Dilbert cartoon, the engineers show how to do it and the administrators screw it up.
HOORAY FOR USC!
Go Gamecocks.
Hummmm,
Old knowledge STILL works…
OK but would not have helped in the Katrina situation.
Remember, big emegency deployment was not issued till the 2nd day after the disaster.
This situation was a bad thing turned worse by a large scale F*** up.
Assuming that crisis situations like this can be detected, evaluated and acted upon in less than 12 hours, this containement technique is effective.
if you live near the ocean, there is basically NOTHING you can do to prepare for a hurricane, IT HAPPENED in NEW ORLEANS, and it WILL HAPPEN again…. hurricanes dont take aim for any one city.