New Orleans’ hurricane and storm damage risk-reduction system is much improved since Hurricane Katrina, but protecting lives will continue to require an emphasis on evacuation, especially until 2011, when the 100-year protection levels are scheduled to be in place. The risk remains high.
Those are the findings of a reconnaissance team sponsored by the National Science Foundation, through the Geoengineering Extreme Events Reconnaissance Association. The team’s inspections last October assessed system performance in Hurricane Gustav’s Sept. 1 landfall. The team plans to release its report by the end of the month.