Hurricane Katrina was really bad. Since the city of New Orleans is 12 feet under water, it has always been at risk. Storm surge from Hurricane Katrina passed right over the barrier islands and the waves severely impacted the lake. It was also due to massive rains that filled the canal and sent more water down the canals. Meanwhile, the Mississippi is on the high side and is now draining at its normal plus hurricane flow.
Add this to the wind from Katrina’s category 4 or 5 landfall and it was pretty much the worst case scenario and the levees broke in several places and maybe gaps big enough to fill New Orleans like a bowl of soup. Some computer models have predicted up to 30 feet of water in some places. It’s not good, obviously, and unfortunately those models turned out to be very similar to what has now happened.
Even after Hurricane Katrina passed, we know it will be three weeks, as all the water from Katrina’s remnants runs off into rivers, including the mighty Mississippi, draining as it passes through the city of New Orleans, As long as the banks flow into the city, the water will keep flowing, and getting that much water out of New Orleans’ City Soup Bowl could take months.
It seems that now it has happened that the soup bowl of the city is almost full. But alas, on the lake side, not the Mississippi side. This has caused complete devastation of the city to the point where some are beginning to raise the question; Why bother rebuilding it because of the costs? We have been promised that we will rebuild and we will. That’s going to take years. Think about this.