New Orleans Feasibility Study to Take Six Years

Ross Perot says “Fix it” like things can be easily and quickly fixed.

I saw this today from June 2003 article in Civil Engineering Magazine on whether or how to protect New Orleans from floods:

"During the past 40 years the US Army Corps of Engineers has spent hundreds of millions of dollars constructing a barrier around the low-lying city of New Orleans to protect it from hurricanes. But is the system of levees high enough? And can any defense ultimately protect a city that is perpetually sinking -- in some areas at the rate of half an inch per year?"

"any concerted effort to protect the city [New Orleans] from a storm of category 4 or 5 will probably take 30 years to complete. And the feasibility study alone for such an effort will cost as much as $8 million. Even though Congress has authorized the feasibility study, funding has not yet been appropriated. When funds are made available, the study will take about six years to complete.

“That’s a lot of time to get the study before Congress,” Naomi admits. “Hopefully we won’t have a major storm before then”.