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> What some might not know is that New Orleans is currently extremely unprepared for a major hurricane. Honestly, I think it's a little incredible that someone

> What some might not know is that New Orleans is currently extremely unprepared for a major hurricane. Honestly, I think it's a little incredible that someone might think they would be prepared. The city was woefully unprepared for Katrina, and the only cities I can think of that might have a more robust history of political corruption and wasted tax dollars are Chicago and Washington, D.C.. Of course nothing has changed and they're entirely unprepared for a hurricane.

toomuchtodo 5y ago
You know, I have some hope. The Army Corps of Engineers is not what I would call a politically charged area of the government, and the costs, while substantial, are manageable for the work that needed to be done. https://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/Portals/56/docs/PAO/Brochures/FactsFiguresAugust2012.pdf https://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/Portals/56/docs/PAO/Brochures... "Following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was authorized and funded to design and construct the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System for southeast Louisiana. The Corps strengthened and improved virtually all of the levees, floodwalls, pump stations and surge barriers that form the 133-mile Greater New Orleans perimeter system. The system that is in place now is stronger and more resilient than it has ever been in the area’s history. The new system is capable of defending against a 100-year level storm." "The Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System (HSDRRS) is fully funded at $14.45 B." "Risk cannot totally be eliminated; everyone shares responsibility for buying down risk through insurance, zoning and building codes, coastal protection and restoration, and complying with mandatory evacuations." My emphasis on this last statement from the pamphlet I reference. Everyone is responsible for working together to derisk. Lets see what that money bought.
- joecool1029 5y ago
  Just a few days ago I went to Bound Brook, NJ as the river crested the highest it's been since 2005, at around 30.5ft on the gauges. This would have previously left most of the town, including its main street underwater as it famously did during hurricane Floyd. However this time it was totally dry due to improvements the Army Corps of Engineers completed in 2012. https://www.nan.usace.army.mil/Portals/37/docs/civilworks/projects/nj/frm/GreenBrook/plan_2.pdf https://www.nan.usace.army.mil/Portals/37/docs/civilworks/pr...
  - grepfru_it 5y ago
    I have photos from 1999 when all of bound brook and part of somerset was underwater. I was shocked how they completely absorbed the recent storm. Also glad to see central NJ represented on HN!
- kevin_thibedeau 5y ago
  The Katrina scenario was predicted years in advance and nobody did anything to protect the city.
  - toomuchtodo 5y ago
    The engineering work I described in my top post proved successful during this most recent hurricane (Ida). https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-30/new-orleans-levees-withstood-hurricane-ida-as-electricity-failed?srnd=premium https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-30/new-orlea...
vkou 5y ago
The problem with being prepared for tropical storms in the gulf is that it takes a few days to get prepared, get people evacuated... But 'a few days' isn't enough time for hurricane forecasters to reliably predict where a storm will make landfall, and how strong that storm is going to be. (Sheltering in place against a small storm, that your infrastructure is built to handle is the correct play.) Not to downplay the corruption problem, but if the gulf states prepared for every incoming storm, they'd be in a constant state of evacuation, and nobody would get anything done during hurricane season. Oh, and evacuations kill people in themselves (Car accidents, the sick and infirm, etc, etc). Do too many false alarm evacuations, and you'll kill more people than the storms would have.
- Clubber 5y ago
  >Oh, and evacuations kill people in themselves (Car accidents, the sick and infirm, etc, etc). Do too many false alarm evacuations, and you'll kill more people than the storms would have. I can vouch for this. Deadlocked roads with cars with nowhere to go in the middle of summer heat for hours or even days on end. Limited gas, limited food and water, no proper medical care. Not a safe environment. Evacuations aren't in any way risk free. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270472303_Deaths_related_to_Hurricane_Rita_and_mass_evacuation https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270472303_Deaths_re... There were 111 deaths related to Hurricane Rita in the state of Texas. The three direct deaths were from wind blown trees. A majority of the deaths (90/108 or 83.3%) were related to the mass evacuation process.
- tacocataco 5y ago
  If there is so much uncertainty in living there, why do people keep rebuilding in the same spot?
  - jacobr1 5y ago
    National Flood Insurance Program and other subsidies. Private insurance rates should increase and drive out residents. Business losses should drive out both business and residents. Without subsidies, I suspect the market would increase the COL such that it would lower the population.
chasd00 5y ago
Heh yeah in my experience the only thing New Orleans is well prepared for is parties and debauchery. Not that there’s anything wrong with that :)
taylorlapeyre 5y ago
I think this is a little bit unfair. New Orleans has an incredible amount of infrastructure to prevent flooding compared to pretty much any other coastal city. Spillways, levees, giant pumps, etc. Even if it fails, you can't really claim that they are "entirely unprepared for a hurricane". At this particular moment, though, some of that infrastructure is weaker than normal. They definitely have corrupt politicians though, no doubt about that.
- MisterBastahrd 5y ago
  Most of New Orleans can happily drain what would put Houston under 6 feet of water. And no amount of drainage can do much when you are on the east side of a powerful storm. You can have pipes from here to the moon but there's nowhere for that water to go. Storm surge is concerning to the people in the know for a reason.
  - taylorlapeyre 5y ago
    I lived in New Orleans for 24 years and personally went through Katrina - so I actually consider one of the people in the know. I still think New Orleans has done its share of preparation. Enough? Not sure. But it's not like New Orleans is ignorant of how to prepare their city for a hurricane.
    - MisterBastahrd 5y ago
      Yeah, I spent my birthday sleeping in a neighbor's gun closet after Katrina because he had AC in his apartment above his garage. LOL.
  - jandrese 5y ago
    The 20" of rain isn't nearly as scary as the 11 foot storm surge that is possible.
    - dredmorbius 5y ago
      A storm dumping rain over the Mississippi drainage for 3--4 days is somewhat more fearsome than 20" in one spot for a few hours. All of that flows out through the Mississippi. I'm not saying it's worse than the storm surge. But it's going to be affecting the city for much longer. (As well as multiple locatons upstream.)
NittLion78 5y ago
Chicago pretty easily unburied itself out of two major snowstorms and extreme (even by normal standards) cold snaps. At least when it comes to the extreme weather the city faces, that part is handled. General corruption/waste is another matter. Recycling in Chicago right now is notably inefficient, for example (something like a 9% clearance rate).
- gogopuppygogo 5y ago
  Not to mention that unfunded pensions are an Illinois speciality these days.
- da_chicken 5y ago
  > Chicago pretty easily unburied itself out of two major snowstorms and extreme (even by normal standards) cold snaps. At least when it comes to the extreme weather the city faces, that part is handled. That's not really the question, though. The question is if you'd be surprised if they didn't. I wouldn't be that surprised to hear that Chicago was unable to clear snow from a 100-year snow event because the funds were mismanaged or something similar. That sounds entirely within character. I wasn't surprised when I heard about the ongoing problems with the Texas power grid, either. I was horrified by the deaths, of course, but did it surprise me that an for-profit utility market didn't result in a robust infrastructure? No. Infrastructure and utilities don't work well under those sort of economic pressures. I wasn't surprised it was fragile.
  - BorgHunter 5y ago
    > I wouldn't be that surprised to hear that Chicago was unable to clear snow from a 100-year snow event because the funds were mismanaged or something similar. That sounds entirely within character. Former Mayor Michael Bilandic famously lost reelection in 1979 after botching snow removal following the large blizzard of that same year. Ever since, snow removal has been one of the city government's core competencies; even the quite intense Groundhog Day blizzard of 2011 was well-handled, though it managed to shut down LSD for a bit. There's plenty of mismanagement and corruption in city government to go around (the police department is famously corrupt and incompetent and shows no signs of turning that around), but snow removal is one thing that can generally be counted on here.
paul_f 5y ago
After $14,000,000,000 was spent, they had better be ready
- genewitch 5y ago
  What is Uber's valuation?
DoreenMichele 5y ago
Katrina was a cat 5. It was also the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane on record to make landfall in the contiguous United States. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina
- blantonl 5y ago
  Katrina was not a cat 5 when it made landfall
  - hansthehorse 5y ago
    It was a category 3 when it made landfall in Louisiana as stated in the article the OP linked.

toomuchtodo 5y ago

You know, I have some hope. The Army Corps of Engineers is not what I would call a politically charged area of the government, and the costs, while substantial, are manageable for the work that needed to be done. https://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/Portals/56/docs/PAO/Brochures/FactsFiguresAugust2012.pdf https://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/Portals/56/docs/PAO/Brochures... "Following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was authorized and funded to design and construct the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System for southeast Louisiana. The Corps strengthened and improved virtually all of the levees, floodwalls, pump stations and surge barriers that form the 133-mile Greater New Orleans perimeter system. The system that is in place now is stronger and more resilient than it has ever been in the area’s history. The new system is capable of defending against a 100-year level storm." "The Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System (HSDRRS) is fully funded at $14.45 B." "Risk cannot totally be eliminated; everyone shares responsibility for buying down risk through insurance, zoning and building codes, coastal protection and restoration, and complying with mandatory evacuations." My emphasis on this last statement from the pamphlet I reference. Everyone is responsible for working together to derisk. Lets see what that money bought.

joecool1029 5y ago
Just a few days ago I went to Bound Brook, NJ as the river crested the highest it's been since 2005, at around 30.5ft on the gauges. This would have previously left most of the town, including its main street underwater as it famously did during hurricane Floyd. However this time it was totally dry due to improvements the Army Corps of Engineers completed in 2012. https://www.nan.usace.army.mil/Portals/37/docs/civilworks/projects/nj/frm/GreenBrook/plan_2.pdf https://www.nan.usace.army.mil/Portals/37/docs/civilworks/pr...
- grepfru_it 5y ago
  I have photos from 1999 when all of bound brook and part of somerset was underwater. I was shocked how they completely absorbed the recent storm. Also glad to see central NJ represented on HN!
kevin_thibedeau 5y ago
The Katrina scenario was predicted years in advance and nobody did anything to protect the city.
- toomuchtodo 5y ago
  The engineering work I described in my top post proved successful during this most recent hurricane (Ida). https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-30/new-orleans-levees-withstood-hurricane-ida-as-electricity-failed?srnd=premium https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-30/new-orlea...

vkou 5y ago

The problem with being prepared for tropical storms in the gulf is that it takes a few days to get prepared, get people evacuated... But 'a few days' isn't enough time for hurricane forecasters to reliably predict where a storm will make landfall, and how strong that storm is going to be. (Sheltering in place against a small storm, that your infrastructure is built to handle is the correct play.) Not to downplay the corruption problem, but if the gulf states prepared for every incoming storm, they'd be in a constant state of evacuation, and nobody would get anything done during hurricane season. Oh, and evacuations kill people in themselves (Car accidents, the sick and infirm, etc, etc). Do too many false alarm evacuations, and you'll kill more people than the storms would have.

Clubber 5y ago
>Oh, and evacuations kill people in themselves (Car accidents, the sick and infirm, etc, etc). Do too many false alarm evacuations, and you'll kill more people than the storms would have. I can vouch for this. Deadlocked roads with cars with nowhere to go in the middle of summer heat for hours or even days on end. Limited gas, limited food and water, no proper medical care. Not a safe environment. Evacuations aren't in any way risk free. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270472303_Deaths_related_to_Hurricane_Rita_and_mass_evacuation https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270472303_Deaths_re... There were 111 deaths related to Hurricane Rita in the state of Texas. The three direct deaths were from wind blown trees. A majority of the deaths (90/108 or 83.3%) were related to the mass evacuation process.
tacocataco 5y ago
If there is so much uncertainty in living there, why do people keep rebuilding in the same spot?
- jacobr1 5y ago
  National Flood Insurance Program and other subsidies. Private insurance rates should increase and drive out residents. Business losses should drive out both business and residents. Without subsidies, I suspect the market would increase the COL such that it would lower the population.

chasd00 5y ago

Heh yeah in my experience the only thing New Orleans is well prepared for is parties and debauchery. Not that there’s anything wrong with that :)

taylorlapeyre 5y ago

I think this is a little bit unfair. New Orleans has an incredible amount of infrastructure to prevent flooding compared to pretty much any other coastal city. Spillways, levees, giant pumps, etc. Even if it fails, you can't really claim that they are "entirely unprepared for a hurricane". At this particular moment, though, some of that infrastructure is weaker than normal. They definitely have corrupt politicians though, no doubt about that.

MisterBastahrd 5y ago
Most of New Orleans can happily drain what would put Houston under 6 feet of water. And no amount of drainage can do much when you are on the east side of a powerful storm. You can have pipes from here to the moon but there's nowhere for that water to go. Storm surge is concerning to the people in the know for a reason.
- taylorlapeyre 5y ago
  I lived in New Orleans for 24 years and personally went through Katrina - so I actually consider one of the people in the know. I still think New Orleans has done its share of preparation. Enough? Not sure. But it's not like New Orleans is ignorant of how to prepare their city for a hurricane.
  - MisterBastahrd 5y ago
    Yeah, I spent my birthday sleeping in a neighbor's gun closet after Katrina because he had AC in his apartment above his garage. LOL.
- jandrese 5y ago
  The 20" of rain isn't nearly as scary as the 11 foot storm surge that is possible.
  - dredmorbius 5y ago
    A storm dumping rain over the Mississippi drainage for 3--4 days is somewhat more fearsome than 20" in one spot for a few hours. All of that flows out through the Mississippi. I'm not saying it's worse than the storm surge. But it's going to be affecting the city for much longer. (As well as multiple locatons upstream.)

NittLion78 5y ago

Chicago pretty easily unburied itself out of two major snowstorms and extreme (even by normal standards) cold snaps. At least when it comes to the extreme weather the city faces, that part is handled. General corruption/waste is another matter. Recycling in Chicago right now is notably inefficient, for example (something like a 9% clearance rate).

gogopuppygogo 5y ago
Not to mention that unfunded pensions are an Illinois speciality these days.
da_chicken 5y ago
> Chicago pretty easily unburied itself out of two major snowstorms and extreme (even by normal standards) cold snaps. At least when it comes to the extreme weather the city faces, that part is handled. That's not really the question, though. The question is if you'd be surprised if they didn't. I wouldn't be that surprised to hear that Chicago was unable to clear snow from a 100-year snow event because the funds were mismanaged or something similar. That sounds entirely within character. I wasn't surprised when I heard about the ongoing problems with the Texas power grid, either. I was horrified by the deaths, of course, but did it surprise me that an for-profit utility market didn't result in a robust infrastructure? No. Infrastructure and utilities don't work well under those sort of economic pressures. I wasn't surprised it was fragile.
- BorgHunter 5y ago
  > I wouldn't be that surprised to hear that Chicago was unable to clear snow from a 100-year snow event because the funds were mismanaged or something similar. That sounds entirely within character. Former Mayor Michael Bilandic famously lost reelection in 1979 after botching snow removal following the large blizzard of that same year. Ever since, snow removal has been one of the city government's core competencies; even the quite intense Groundhog Day blizzard of 2011 was well-handled, though it managed to shut down LSD for a bit. There's plenty of mismanagement and corruption in city government to go around (the police department is famously corrupt and incompetent and shows no signs of turning that around), but snow removal is one thing that can generally be counted on here.

paul_f 5y ago

After $14,000,000,000 was spent, they had better be ready

genewitch 5y ago
What is Uber's valuation?

DoreenMichele 5y ago

Katrina was a cat 5. It was also the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane on record to make landfall in the contiguous United States. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina

blantonl 5y ago
Katrina was not a cat 5 when it made landfall
- hansthehorse 5y ago
  It was a category 3 when it made landfall in Louisiana as stated in the article the OP linked.