TWELVE years ago Hurricane Katrina exposed the flood defences in New Orleans as a cruel joke. The floods unleashed by the storm marinated people's homes in fetid seawater and rendered much of the city uninhabitable for months. Since then, local and federal officials (the floodbanks that protect the city are designed by, built by and paid for by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) have mostly been focused on making the low-lying, bowl-shaped city less vulnerable to a repeat of that catastrophe. Though the new hurricane defences have barely been tested so far, they are thought to be far superior to those that failed in 2005.
However, the focus on hurricanes seems to have led officials to neglect a far more pedestrian threat. Earlier this month, the city was sorely tested by thunderstorms, which hit New Orleans on just about any summer afternoon. On August 5, around 25 centimetres (10 inches) of rain fell in just over three hours, flooding several neighbourhoods. Days after the flooding, with more rain forecast,...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2wQIILB
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