October 29, 2007

We Will Not Be Protected from a Hurricane Four Times More Likely to Hit Us than Katrina until 2011

posted by m.d.


CORRECTION: The original title was wrong, as pointed out by mominem in comments. It said: "We Will Not Be Protected from a Hurricane 25% as Strong as Katrina until 2011." A 100-year storm is four times more likley to come in any year (if my math is correct here) than a 400-year storm. But, not necessarily 25% as strong. I hate being wrong. The following info is still worthwhile, however.

If that:
Dozens of construction projects launched by the Army Corps of Engineers to protect the New Orleans region from the most catastrophic floods are behind schedule by an average of nearly eight months, an internal audit shows. Local officials are concerned the completion date will have to be pushed back a second time.

***

Local officials worry that the corps now will miss its revised June 2011 deadline for getting the region protected against a 100-year flood — a flood so bad it has only a 1% chance of hitting in any year. The corps pushed back its original January 2010 deadline earlier this year.
Katrina was a 400-year storm. The US Army Corps of Engineers is building a levee system capable of handling a 100-year storm.

I just thought I would point that out to the rest of country.

3 comments:

Tim said...

Thanks for blogging about this important topic. The so-called 100 year protection is just a starting point if you ask me. We need 500 to 1,000 year level of protection.

See these posts from my blog for more details:

http://timsnamelessblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/100-year-protection-is-not-enough.html

http://timsnamelessblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/unlevel-protection.html

Peace,

Tim

mominem said...

Just a point.

A 400 year storm is not 4 times as powerful as 100 year storm. I'm not sure what the difference is but I doubt that it is anywhere near twice as strong.

m.d. said...

mominem, good point.

I have erred.