NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- A Louisiana State University hurricane expert is disputing U.S. Army Corps of Engineers claims that water overflowed some levees after Hurricane Katrina.
Paul Kemp, director of the Natural Systems Modeling Group at LSU's Center for Coastal, Energy, and Environmental Resources, said researchers studying watermarks and other evidence to sharpen their future predictions saw no evidence that walls along two canals had been overtopped. Breaches along those canals accounted for much of the flooding in New Orleans after the Aug. 29 storm.
That clashes with the corps version, which said the floodwalls collapsed after water flowed over them, eroding the back-side levees inside of which the floodwalls were erected, causing them to burst.
"If they are not overtopped, it means they failed at some lower elevation" of water, Kemp said.
However, corps spokesman Mitch Frazier said the agency is focused on pumping the water out of New Orleans and preparing for problems that could spin off Hurricane Rita as it crosses the Gulf of Mexico.
As of Wednesday, 90 percent of New Orleans had been pumped dry, the report said.
