There has been alot of press coverage and even a #1 reccomended diary about the New Orleanians testifying before congress. These folks testified about explosions and the levees being blown up intentionally to flood the black neighborhoods. I firmly believe that this is untrue and unfounded and the record needs to be set straight. Read on if you care to have an accurate history of what happened to the levees after Katrina and why some people believe the levees were blown up.
I have updated below to address the myth of the St. Bernard levees being blown as well as added a link to some levee photos. I'll try to add more later but my dog is begging to go outside!
Updates at the bottom.
First of all the 17th street canal runs alongside a largely upper middle class area known as Lakeview. It is one of the whitest parts of New Orleans and the destruction there is just as bad as the Lower 9th Ward only it occupies a smaller geographical area and can be accessed on 3 sides from higher ground that was less affected by the flood. Because of this it was nearly impossible for the police and guard to keep people out that wanted to return. I stood on the emergency road that was built to access the breech 10 days after Katrina hit. I got there with no special passes at all. There was a flagman there and anyone could drive over the Old Hammond Highway Bridge right there. It has since been closed to the public but one can walk down the levee even today.
One woman asserted before Congress that a 30 foot deep crater is evidence of an explosion. This crater is entirly possible from scouring. Furthermore if there was a crater as the result of an explosion it would have been eroded and replaced by a big scour hole caused by water rushing under the wall and through the eventual breech. The floodwall failed because water seeping through the underlying peat layer undercut the wall, allowing water to pour under it and into the city. This means that before the actual wall fell there was water rushing under the too short sheetpiling and through the peat and sand layer underneath the wall. It probably did make some noises but I doubt Mama D heard them because she was probably in the Lower 9th Ward. I have heard this rumor over and over again here in New Orleans.
Flooding in the Lower 9 was caused by the Industrial Canal. While the 17th street canal is only an outfall canal for pumped water the Industrial Canal is a much deeper shipping channel that connects the MRGO (Mississippi River Gulf Outlet) to Lake Ponchatrain. Storm surge rushed in through the MRGO unabated and these elevated water levels are responsible for the BREECH of the walls along the Industrial Canal as well as the flood protection levees of St. Bernard parish. These walls were not undercut but breeched, meaning the water came over the top and then eroded the base which then failed creating the breech. I am sure any number of things could have created some very loud noises around that time. I am only guessing as to what but I would say it was a transformer blowing, substation going underwater, or perhaps the nationaly reported train explosions which were not far from that breech at all and were heard citywide.
As far as the complaints of people not being allowed back in to the 9th ward it was much easier for the authorities to seal off this area as opposed to the rest of New Orleans because it is isolated by bridges. Unlike Lakeview this is a huge geographical area. The flood damage extends to the entirety of St. Bernard parish and includes the area of the Murphy Oil spill, another good reason to prevent entry into the area.
I firmly believe the rumors of the levees being blown are a direct result of what happened at Caernarvon in 1927. It is true that the levee of the Mississippi was blown to relieve pressure upstream in an effort to save New Orleans during a river flood, not a hurricane. Whether or not it helped save the city or not I do not know but it did destroy some black neighborhoods. I also know that many more would have been destroyed if the river levees had broken and flooded New Orleans back then. If you need further proof of that assertion just look at what happened after Katrina. Caernarvon was a relatively unpopulated area back then as compared to New Orleans and I am sure lots of black and white people in New Orleans at the time were more than happy to see the levee blasted at Caernarvon.
Spreading rumors will not help us get stronger levees. The truth is that there were too many politicians in charge of the design of this sytem and not enough engineers. Then, when it was built, our good old boy contractors skimped on the job and probably pocketed some cash in the process. Later on, the people entrusted with taking care of our second rate system were more concerned with having fancy lunches than doing inspections and protecting their positions in antiquated, wasteful, political fiefdoms.
Despite all that has happened New Orleans is worth saving and defending from flood. Please everyone call your representatives and insist that we protect and defend what is probably the most culturally diverse city in America.
Update: Due to the repsonse this diary recieved I want to add some links and also address some of the comments.
The idea that there were explosives planted in the levees in just plain wrong but not entirely offbase. I think much of the problem here lies in a severe lack of understanding of the geography of our area. We have these levees in the first place because parts of the city are below sea level and thus we need to pump out rainwater and ALSO to protect us from tidal surge. Here's the problem when our levee system fails. After the failure the levees become dams. They are holding the water IN, preventing the drainage of the water that is inside the system and above sea level once the surge receeds. Areas like St. Bernard parish and Plaquemines parish do not have anywhere near the pump capacity needed to empty the water held in by the remaining levees. So to speed the drainage the levees in these parishes were indeed breeched AFTER the surge receeded to let the water out. If this had not been done the water would still be there. I do not believe explosives were used and I remember hearing an official from the Corps saying that as well on WWL870 radio after the storm. Any stories about explosives in the levees are nothing more than urban myth and heresay. I have lived here all my life and still do and I have heard all the stories. My nextdoor neighbor thinks the Industrial Canal was bombed from a plane! Several people in my neighborhood believe that levee was blown up to flood our homes. In fact the water came from the 17th st. canal!
I will try to get some more links up later but my dog in whining to eat and go for a walk...
Pictures from the LSU engineering team that did the post Katrina inspections.
http://www.clear.lsu.edu/clear/web-content/Files/NO_LeveeSurvey.pdf
UPDATE 2: There is a great story in this mornings Times Picayune about the complicated mix of human errors that led to what may be the largest man-made disaster ever. There is a great graphic in the paper but it is not online. I'll see if I can get it scanned later. Sorry about my links not being clickable but my auto-formatting seems to be not working.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1134028141231650.xml
Ok, I tracked down the personal site of the Times-Pic's graphic artist. While this mornings graphic is not up yet there are many others on this page relating to Katrina, the levee breeches, and the resulting flooding.
http://danswenson.com/paper/katrina.html