Current:Home > Invest18 years after Katrina levee breaches, group wants future engineers to learn from past mistakes-LoTradeCoin
18 years after Katrina levee breaches, group wants future engineers to learn from past mistakes
View Date:2024-12-24 00:49:11
Future engineers need a greater understanding of past failures — and how to avoid repeating them — a Louisiana-based nonprofit said to mark Tuesday’s 18th anniversary of the deadly, catastrophic levee breaches that inundated most of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
Having better-educated engineers would be an important step in making sure that projects such as levees, bridges or skyscrapers can withstand everything from natural disasters to everyday use, said Levees.org. Founded in 2005, the donor-funded organization works to raise awareness that Katrina was in many ways a human-caused disaster. Federal levee design and construction failures allowed the hurricane to trigger one of the nation’s deadliest and costliest disasters.
The push by Levees.org comes as Hurricane Idalia takes aim at Florida’s Gulf Coast, threatening storm surges, floods and high winds in a state still dealing with lingering damage from last year’s Hurricane Ian.
And it’s not just hurricanes or natural disasters that engineers need to learn from. Rosenthal and H.J. Bosworth, a professional engineer on the group’s board, pointed to other major failures such as the Minneapolis highway bridge collapse in 2007 and the collapse of a skywalk at a hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, among others.
Levees.org wants to make sure students graduating from engineering programs can “demonstrate awareness of past engineering failures.” The group is enlisting support from engineers, engineering instructors and public works experts, as well as the general public. This coalition will then urge the Accrediting Board of Engineering Schools to require instruction on engineering failures in its criteria for accrediting a program.
“This will be a bottom-up effort,” Sandy Rosenthal, the founder of Levees.org, said on Monday.
Rosenthal and her son Stanford, then 15, created the nonprofit in the wake of Katrina’s Aug. 29, 2005 landfall. The organization has conducted public relations campaigns and spearheaded exhibits, including a push to add levee breach sites to the National Register of Historic Places and transforming a flood-ravaged home near one breach site into a museum.
Katrina formed in the Bahamas and made landfall in southeastern Florida before heading west into the Gulf of Mexico. It reached Category 5 strength in open water before weakening to a Category 3 at landfall in southeastern Louisiana. As it headed north, it made another landfall along the Mississippi coast.
Storm damage stretched from southeast Louisiana to the Florida panhandle. The Mississippi Gulf Coast suffered major damage, with surge as high as 28 feet (8.5 meters) in some areas. But the scenes of death and despair in New Orleans are what gripped the nation. Water flowed through busted levees for days, covering 80% of the city, and took weeks to drain. At least 1,833 people were killed.
veryGood! (25655)
Related
- 5-year-old boy who went missing while parent was napping is found dead near Oregon home, officials say
- Bomb threats close schools and offices after Trump spread false rumors about Haitians in Ohio
- Lil Tay's Account Says She's Been Diagnosed With a Heart Tumor One Year After Death Hoax
- Retired Oklahoma Catholic bishop Edward Slattery dies at 84
- The Masked Singer's Ice King Might Be a Jonas Brother
- Kate Gosselin’s Lawyer Addresses Her Son Collin’s Abuse Allegations
- Bill would ban sports betting ads during games and forbid bets on college athletes
- Walgreens to pay $106M to settle allegations it submitted false payment claims for prescriptions
- Appeals Court Affirms Conviction of Everglades Scientist Accused of Stealing ‘Trade Secrets’
- The Best Amazon Fashion Deals Right Now: 72% Off Sweaters, $13 Dresses, $9 Tops & More
Ranking
- 'Survivor' 47, Episode 9: Jeff Probst gave players another shocking twist. Who went home?
- Watch these squirrels escape the heat in a woman's amazing homemade spa
- Still adjusting to WWE life, Jade Cargill is 'here to break glass ceilings'
- The Best Amazon Fashion Deals Right Now: 72% Off Sweaters, $13 Dresses, $9 Tops & More
- Why Cynthia Erivo Needed Prosthetic Ears for Wicked
- We shouldn't tell Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to retire. But his family should.
- Man drives pickup truck onto field at Colorado Buffaloes' football stadium
- What Bachelorette Jenn Tran and Devin Strader Have Revealed About the Thorny Details of Their Breakup
Recommendation
-
Inside Dream Kardashian's Sporty 8th Birthday Party
-
What to watch: Worst. Vacation. Ever.
-
Biden administration appears to be in no rush to stop U.S. Steel takeover by Nippon Steel
-
Former President Barack Obama surprises Team USA at Solheim Cup
-
Walmart Planned to Remove Oven Before 19-Year-Old Employee's Death
-
What Bachelorette Jenn Tran and Devin Strader Have Revealed About the Thorny Details of Their Breakup
-
New Boar's Head lawsuit details woman's bout with listeria, claims company withheld facts
-
Report finds ‘no evidence’ Hawaii officials prepared for wildfire that killed 102 despite warnings