Failure of the 17th Street Canal Levee

Here are two very interesting pieces from the Times-Picayune newspaper on the 17^th Street canal levee failure during hurricane Katrina. They give very different viewpoints on the cause of the failure.

“Report: Levee failure could not be foreseen

Task force says unique forces caused breach in 17th Street Canal levee

Saturday, March 11, 2006

By Bob Marshall

Staff writer

A unique combination of stresses that engineers could not have predicted caused the 17th Street Canal floodwall to fail and flood thousands of homes and businesses during Hurricane Katrina, according to an interim report of the task force investigating the disaster for the Army Corps of Engineers.”...

http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/library-97/1142060616174100.xml?nola

"Editorial: Culpability at the Corps

Sunday, March 19, 2006

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ought to be held accountable for deadly mistakes the agency made in constructing the flood protection system for greater New Orleans.”...

http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1142756066159350.xml?nola