Is New Orleans Ready for Hurricane Season?
The Army Corps of Engineers is still working on the levees, with June 1 target date for completion. The force of Hurricane Katrina broke the levees six months ago, flooding New Orleans with water from Lake Ponchartrain, the industrial canal and other sources. The Army Corps of Engineers has been charged with rebuilding the levees, and it’s a daunting task. Contractors are working 24-hour days, building levee walls as high as 17 feet. And this time, they’re reinforcing them with concrete backings. But hurricane season starts in just three months. Will they be done in time? “It’s a tight schedule,” said Fred Young, who is Corps project manager for the levee reconstruction program. “Supplies are tight and labor’s tight down here, and we’re just trying to do the best we can, and 1 June is our goal.” Critics point out that the government is only repairing breaks in the levees that it can see. “We’re doing repairs on the breaches, but there are many, many, many miles of levee that we don’t h
