WHEN THE AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY LEVEE BREAKS New …
Transcript of WHEN THE AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY LEVEE BREAKS New …
12 time, september 12, 2005
LOUISIANA SUPERDOMEAs aid began to trickle into the city,thousands waited for evacuation
17th STREET CANALHelicopters dropped giant sandbagsin an effort to seal the initial breach
Mississippi River
Lakeview
Levee
Levee
TulaneUniversity
LoyolaUniversity
AudubonPark
Metairie
Jefferson
Orle
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Ave.
Can
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17th
S
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Water- treatmentplant
17th St.Canalbreach
A N A M E R I CA N T RAG E DY
New Orleans is surrounded by a 350-mile (563 km) system of levees that hold back the waters of the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. When three levees failed, the city filled like a bathtub
WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS
Floodwaters may have risen past the tops of the levees. The city’s pumping system, designed to handle smaller storms, lost power and failed
1
Canal
Levee walls
OVERTOPPING
Because the flooding didn’t begin until after the hurricane, some suspect the levees may have leaked from within. The water pressure would have turned tiny cracks into gaping holes
2 BREACHING
Crews have been trying to plug the collapsed levees with giant sandbags and concrete barriers. Once the levees are sealed, the challenge of draining the city begins. That job could take months
3 REPAIR
New Orleans Under
St. CharlesHospital
UniversityHospital
MemorialMedicalCenter
MemorialMedicalCenter
TulaneHospital
TIME Graphic byEd Gabel andLon Tweeten;text by Kristina Dell
Sources: Dean Gesch, U.S. Geological Survey; Army Corps of Engineers; Digital Globe; New Orleans Times-Picayune. Inset model of downtown New Orleans “Intelligent 3D Map” provided by ITspatial, imagery provided by Sanborn Mapping
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time, september 12, 2005 13
More than12 ft. (3.7 m)abovesea level
More than9 ft. (2.7 m)belowsea level
Sea level
CONVENTION CENTERLynn Jackson, 46, hugs her daughterafter being rescued from her home
Lake Pontchartrain
Levee
St. LouisCemetery1 and 2
Mount OlivetCemetery
Fairgrounds
Arabi
FrenchQuarter
GardenDistrict
CityPark
WestBank
FrenchQuarter
GardenDistrict
CityPark
AudubonPark
Metairie
Downtown
London Ave.Canal breach
PontchartrainPark
Universityof New Orleans
London Ave. Canal
Second London Ave.Canal breach
IndustrialCanal breach
Water The storm passed, and the city had survived. Then a levee broke. The worst-case scenario had arrived
Vertical scale is exaggerated
Mississippi River
WHERE WATER IS HIGHER THAN LAND
DOWNTOWN MOSTLY DRY
Approximateextent offlooding French
Quarter
Superdome
Much of New Orleans’ main
business district is built on the highest ground in the
city. The Superdome
wasn’t so lucky
Lake Pontchartrain
New Orleans sits in a wide, shallow bowl, with the levees ofthe Mississippi as one rim and the levees of Lake Pontchartrain as the other. The bottom of the bowl is filled with small ridges, which created small islands when the city flooded
St. ClaudeMedicalCenter
Charity Hospital
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