Citation
(2006), "Hurricane protection and damage reduction: what went wrong in New Orleans", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 15 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2006.07315dab.003
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Hurricane protection and damage reduction: what went wrong in New Orleans
Comprehensive analysis to determine exactly what happened in the New Orleans hurricane and flood protection system during Hurricane Katrina is the mission of the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET). Established by the chief of the US Army Corps of Engineers, the IPET is made up of some of the nation's leading engineers and scientists from government, academia, and private industry.
While the IPET's primary focus is investigating the levees and floodwalls that overtopped or breached in order to provide answers for use in future New Orleans protection project designs, the task force is also providing preliminary observations from its own team members and from other engineering organizations for possible use in the rapid-paced repairs of Hurricane Katrina damage. These observations are being provided to the Corps' Task Force Guardian, which is managing the repair of damaged levees and floodwalls, for possible inclusion in repair designs.
The IPET's final report will be completed June 1, 2006. Various interim reports will be released and posted on the IPET web site at: ipet.wes.army.mil/ as they become available. Already available is the 219-page Performance Evaluation Plan and Interim Status, Report 1 of a Series: Performance Evaluation of the New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana Hurricane Protection System. IPET reports will be reviewed by an American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) External Review Panel. Additionally, the National Academies has assembled a multidisciplinary, independent panel of acknowledged experts to review and synthesize the IPET and ASCE efforts. The National Academies panel will report its findings in the summer of 2006. All of these reports will be released to the public.