National Academies to Probe New Orleans Levee Failures
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has instructed the Army to convene an panel of outside specialists to study why levees and floodwalls around New Orleans failed in the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina.
Under Rumsfeld's directive, announced Oct. 19, Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey will ask the National Academies of Science and Engineering to assemble a panel from a variety of disciplines to study whether levee or floodwall failures occurred because of design, construction, operation or maintenance factors, soil conditions, "changed assumptions" on which design or construction was based, or the strength of the hurricane.