If finished by 2011 as planned and supported by an effective stormwater pumping system, the $14.3-billion hurricane and storm-damage risk-reduction system of levees, gates and floodwalls going up around New Orleans will “dramatically reduce” vulnerability to flooding and potential loss of lives and property during extreme storms events, according to a new report that explains the extraordinary risk-analysis tools developed to study the system since Hurricane Katrina’s devastation in 2005.
“If it’s constructed and performs equal to what we assume it will in the model, it’s going to be a hell of a system,” says Lewis “Ed” Link, the director of the project that produced the analysis.