Page 4 - Levy System News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Rainfall totals, near the top of the charts. pink contours, in excess of 12 inches. again, you look at the levy system here, you know the levy system expands quite a bit. but in the state of louisiana, there are 293 levy systems spanning 3,200 miles worth of levies that protect the state. you put that in new york city, stretch it to los angeles and it speaks to the amount of coverage and the protection set in place to try to protect the city against hurricane driven storm surge and floods. but the intensity is causing levy failures. one of them right here. winds were 150 miles per hour at

Be cleared first. power lines have to be saved. this is search and rescue day. this is get to people today and do those rescues. >> there are lives on the line today. you mentioned the lessons learned from katrina. 16 years ago. real massive investment to try to mitigate the effects of future hurricanes. in this case we saw a catastrophic blackout in new orleans. we don't know the full extent of the damage in the southern areas, but what are you making of the federal response so far? and whether the region is passing the test given the investment made in the wake of katrina. >> well, again, th...

>> reporter: the situation isn't getting any better. i think we're learning the impacts of that hurricane. hurricane ida coming in as a category 4 on the 16th anniversary of hurricane katrina, which was a category 3. you heard the mayor talking about the water overtopping the levies. it was a good test to see if the levy system would hold. it wasn't the water in all parts of louisiana people were worried about. it was the wind. it was being without power and, well, here we are. eight transmission lines sbajted during the storm. knocking out the power to the entire city of new orleans. we'll sh...

A relentless rain and storm surge that is coming onto the coast of louisiana. so we've been at it all day. you know, we have two systems here. we have a hurricane risk reduction system here in st. bernard parish that was built after katrina. it's a levy system, that was $14 billion. that kept 99% of our population safe and it worked like it should. outside of our levy system, we have about ten feet of storm surge. totally devastated commercial fishing industry. inside of our levy system, i tell you, we've got a significant amount of downed trees and power lines, and now with this news of the d...

Mississippi which will see the largest storm surge. of course that is a huge concern. people remember 16 years ago today in fact, katrina, the devastation in new orleans. there was a big issue with the levees and the wall is designed to protect the city from storm surges and flooding. they really didn't work because 80% of the city was flooded with hundreds of lives lost. the big question is, will the improved levy system hold up to it? they have been strengthened but we will wait and see. this is a huge amount of water, height of water, that will be hitting those levees and moving inland beca...