Hurricane Center Director: Weakened levies - tropical storm could reflood N.O.

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September 11, 2005

From the Sunday, September 11 broadcast of MSNBC Meet The Press:

MR. RUSSERT: ...Doctor, you're an expert on this. We're still in the hurricane season. What are the chances, the likelihood that a tropical storm or, God forbid, another hurricane could hit this same area?
DR. VAN HEERDEN: You know, there is a high probability it could happen. The unfortunate thing is, because the levee system is so weakened, just a tropical storm could reflood New Orleans. So it's a very, very vulnerable situation right now. We don't need another Katrina to flood New Orleans. A tropical storm that puts maybe five feet or six feet of water in Lake Pontchartrain, which is not rare, would reflood the city.
MR. RUSSERT: Do you think the local, state and federal governments are prepared for an event like that in the coming weeks?
DR. VAN HEERDEN: I don't think so, because right now they're really battling just to try and shore up the levees. You know, there were seven major levee breaks and it's going to take quite a lot of time to repair those, to have them engineeringly sound so they won't give way again.

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Sources

Meet The Press Transcript for September 11

MSNBC.com

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