Troy, N.Y. — Researchers investigating levee failures in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina have released their preliminary findings. In a report presented to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Nov. 2, the team, which included an engineer from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, suggested that many of the New Orleans levee and floodwall breaches occurred at weak-link junctions where different levee or wall sections came together.

Tom Zimmie, professor and acting chair of civil and environmental engineering at Rensselaer, spent a week in New Orleans as part of the forensic investigation, which was funded by a special exploratory grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). “We were all completely shocked by the devastation we saw in New Orleans,” Zimmie says. “While our report outlines some key issues that need to be addressed as the levee system is being rebuilt, it is important to remember that there were many different causes for different parts of the levees that failed. There are no simple answers, and the investigation is far from over.”

The NSF team is collaborating with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Raymond Seed, professor of civil engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and head of the NSF team, presented testimony at the Senate hearing. The leader of the ASCE team, Peter Nicholson, associate professor of geotechnical engineering at the University of Hawaii, also outlined his team’s findings at the hearing. 

For a copy of the report and the testimony visit:
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/11/02_levee.shtml 

To learn more about Zimmie’s research in New Orleans and at Rensselaer visit:
http://news.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=1093