Water Policy (Dec 2021)
How Hurricane Katrina influenced the design of hurricane protection and risk reduction systems and national approaches to risk and resilience: Part 1. Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans: A forensic assessment, risk and reliability analysis, and key lessons learned
Abstract
A systems perspective is presented of what happened during and after Hurricane Katrina (2005) and the potential for reducing the likelihood of large losses in the future. This work was the basis for the rapid repair of the damage resulting from Katrina and ultimately the development and construction of a new risk reduction system for the region and a major shift in engineering guidance and practice related to public water infrastructure. The work was primarily accomplished through the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET) established by the Chief of Engineers, US Army Corps of Engineers, to conduct a comprehensive forensic analysis of what happened and why, and to an engineering risk and reliability assessment of the hurricane protection system in place when Katrina struck. HIGHLIGHTS Hurricane Katrina caused extensive and unprecedented economic damages and loss of life in Southeast Louisiana. An interagency task force was formed to find out what happened and why.; The resulting forensic analysis of the storm and resulting forces, protective structures and their performance, the resultant flooding, and associated economic and life losses portrays a vivid picture of the consequences of being unprepared.; The associated risk and reliability analysis conducted for New Orleans and vicinity provided a strategic baseline for understanding why New Orleans was so vulnerable and a foundation for configuring both short-term repairs and a longer-term initiative for a dramatic reduction of flood risk for the future.; The lessons learned from this effort were the roots of major changes in the approach taken for flood mitigation through the application of risk and reliability and a better understanding of both the hurricane threat and the failure modes of coastal structures.;
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