[StBernard] wwltv.com article from Jim York

[Westley Annis]

I was going to copy/paste and post but just sending to you fwiw.  I wonder
if this COE guy said this with a straight face?
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Corps of Engineers says MRGO makes little difference on height of a
hurricane's storm surge

10:52 PM CST on Monday, March 20, 2006

Dave McNamara / WWL-TV News Reporter


Corps of Engineers says MRGO makes little difference on height of a
hurricane's storm surge

10:52 PM CST on Monday, March 20, 2006

Dave McNamara / WWL-TV News Reporter

 The Army Corps of Engineers said the controversial Mississippi River Gulf
Outlet (MRGO) makes little difference in the height of a hurricane's storm
surge.  
  
 That information came as a surprise to researchers at LSU who said the St.
Bernard Parish shipping channel played a key role in destroying hurricane
levees during Hurricane Katrina, and critics have complained that the ship
channel has been a pipeline for storm surge.  
  
 A preliminary report from the Army Corps of Engineers offered a much
different view.  
  
 Using a computer model to measure a Katrina-like surge with and without the
MRGO, the new report said the channel only adds a few inches to the height
of the water.  
  
 "If you envision a 15-20 foot storm surge that just overwhelms the wetland,
I guess it's easier for me to envision that that little channel becomes less
and less important," said Bruce Ebersole, who helped write the new report.  
  
 Dr. Hassan Mashriqui, an LSU storm surge expert, said the corp's report
ignores a key factor in levee destruction. Mashriqui said his models show
the ship channel increases the velocity of the water as it pounds and
scrapes against the levees.  
  
 "The MRGO's like a fireman's hose. It not only poured water there, it
poured water with a speed, with a faster rate. Anything in its path got
washed away, period," he said.  
  
 LSU researchers said levees on the MRGO and the intracoastal waterway may
have started to fail before they were overtopped by Katrina's storm surge.
They said that when that surge reached the Paris Road Bridge, the water was
racing at a rate of eight to12 feet per second, and it may have been that
rapid movement of water that was scouring and breaching the levees.  
  
 Mashriqui said he believes the levee breach at the Bayou Bienvenue gate may
have occurred before the water topped the levee.  
  
 "This side of the fate was totally failed because this gate was inside the
soft levee. Six feet per second or 3 feet per second could scour this area
easily," he said.  
  
 The corps disagreed and said the levees did not fail until they were
overtopped by the storm surge. The corps claimed its new MRGO levees will be
stronger, but so far the levee lacks any concrete or rock armoring.  
  
 The corp's Dan Hitching said armoring will not happen until congress
authorizes the extra work and provides the money.  
  
 "Best case scenario would be rapid approval and funding and we'd be able to
get material on probably a July-August time frame," he said.  
  
 A corps led team of investigators are still analyzing the levee failures
from Katrina, but the investigation will not be finished until a new
hurricane season begins.  
  
 The Corps of Engineers also reported that the MRGO helps drain Lake
Pontchartrain after a storm passes and water levels drop in Lake Borgne.