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American Morning

Were the Katrina-Induced Levee Failures in New Orleans Unforeseeable?

Aired March 15, 2006 - 09:33   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Were the Katrina-induced levee failures in New Orleans unforeseeable? That is a seemingly surprising conclusion of a preliminary report from a group of experts that has been looking into this. Ed Link Project director for the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force, working with the army Corps Of Engineers to investigate the levee failures. He joins us from Washington.
Mr. Link, good to have you with us.

ED LINK, IPET PROJECT DIR.: Thank you. It's a privilege to be here.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, let's talk specifically here. There are many levee failures, I think there were upwards of 50, large and small we could focus on. We don't have time for that. But this 17th Street is one that we focus so much on and was such a critical one.

First of all, I want to remind viewers what we're talking about here. Let's show the aerial shot of the 17th Street breach, which of course flooded this side. And the breach was right there. And in the early moments after Katrina sort of set forth that flooding, which ended up causing such great havoc in so many neighborhoods of New Orleans.

Was that breach, given everything we know about this storm, everything that was predicted about what would happen when a storm of that size would come to New Orleans, was it really unforeseeable?

LINK: The study that we've done has focused on really understanding exactly why that particular stretch of levee and others were breached. In fact, this levee was breached prior to the peak of the storm, which made it even more important to understand the mechanics of that and to put that information to work on the repair.

Our report has said that the particular failure mechanism that we have identified for this was not anticipated by the design. We haven't made a value judgment on whether or not it should have. We've simply said this is what it is. Now let's put that to work, and let's make sure we don't build the same vulnerability back into the system.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. So in other words, the design might have been wrong, but the design worked. In other words, it was built to spec. Let's take a look, if we could, at a model that was developed by the Army Corps of Engineers in Vicksburg, Mississippi. This is like a scale model. This is the wet side of the levee. That's the levee there, and that's the dry side there. What you see there is water comes in, and literally pushes back on the levee wall, just like that, and eventually causes it to fail. One of the key things I wanted to ask you about, Mr. Link, was how far down those so-called sheet piles or those walls went down. Did they go down far enough?

LINK: This particular sheet pile went down to about minus-17 feet, just below the layer. The dark layer you see there is the peat, and the white layer below that is clay. And what you've just seen is a centrifuge model that was done at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York.

M. O'BRIEN: My apologies for getting that wrong.

In any case, so what you're saying is it was deep enough and built -- should have been strong enough to last. What we're talking about this...

LINK: No, I didn't say that. What I said was that it was minus- 17 feet, and when the sheet pile wall tilted it allowed a lot of water pressure to go down along the front, as the line indicates there, and it basically separated the levee into two pieces. And no longer -- now the back half of the levee was having to withstand the entire pressure. The clays underneath the peat were not strong enough to do that.

M. O'BRIEN: So if you were to design -- knowing what we know now, if you were to design a wall there, a sheet pile, a levee system, what would you do differently?

LINK: Our analysis showed that the -- it was a combination of this tilting of the wall, the higher hydrostatic pressure and a differential weakness in the clay underneath the tow of the levee, that coupled together were all of the pieces, parts that allowed this failure to occur.

If any one of those things would have been missing, the wall would have performed as designed. So even though it wasn't designed to withstand this particular mechanism.

Now, talking about the depth of the sheet piles, the sheet piles are right across the canal, 200 feet away, were eight feet shorter than the sheet piles at this site, and yet that side of the canal did not fail. So this is more complex than simply how deep the sheet pile was or...

M. O'BRIEN: Well, we certainly understand it's complex. But let me ask you this, hindsight is 20/20. As you look back on it, when these floodwalls were designed, did they overlook fundamental concerns, stresses that would occur when a storm of this size would come ashore in New Orleans?

LINK: I think the designers of the wall have stated that they did not consider this particular mechanism, and that's very clear. What we are doing now is taking this knowledge and applying it to the evaluation of the rest of the eyewalls in the New Orleans area, to make sure we understand the integrity, and when the repairs are done by the Corps of Engineers, those repairs are incorporating this knowledge, so that the repairs are more resilient to these forces in the future.

M. O'BRIEN: Ed link is with I-P-E-T, the group investigating levee failures in New Orleans. This is the interim report, the final report due out in June. We'll have you back, if you don't mind, sir.

LINK: I would welcome that.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you -- Soledad.

LINK: Thank you.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We're getting this news just in to CNN: It looks as if the Saddam Hussein trial has now been adjourned three weeks, and it will be back on, on April 5th. This a trial that has been full of stops and starts, and this is yet another one. It's a day in which, again, very similar to past days, where Saddam Hussein entering the courtroom in a calm fashion, but boy, did that end quick, when he started going at it with the judge. The judge nine times pressed a button, which effectively kills the audio coming from Saddam Hussein to all the interpreters and all the media, the journalists above. They couldn't hear what Saddam Hussein was saying. Eventually all of the journalists were just kicked out. A short time later, they were allowed to return.

But then almost immediately after that, the adjournment has been announced. And so not a full and complete day with Saddam Hussein on the stand in his own defense, but really the political ramblings going on and on, and not much progress made in the short time that he was on the stand. Three weeks now, April 5th, is when that trial is back on again.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, a baby cereal being investigated for suspicious ingredients. Andy has details. You're not going to want to miss that.

S. O'BRIEN: And what's a single girl to do when all of her girlfriends go off and get married? We'll show you a new kind of speed dating, speed dating for friendship. We'll get to that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MARKET REPORT) S. O'BRIEN: Let's show this videotape that we have loved to shown over the past, what, six weeks now?

SERWER: There he goes, from the wing.

S. O'BRIEN: You there is Jason McElwain, he has autism, and he's scored, winning points on the court, winning the hears of people all across the country as well. I've been asked so much about the interview I did with him the other day. What a nice kid, goes off to college, put into the last home game by the coach. In his four minutes he scores 20 minutes. Well, guess who his new best friend is, George W., the pres himself. Took a little time out from pretty busy schedule to stop by and visit in upstate New York to greet Jason. He grabs him by the arm.

M. O'BRIEN: Look at the car. The car comes in. He's like, hey, hey, get that car away.

S. O'BRIEN: Me and J-Mac, we're crossing.

M. O'BRIEN: You'll of course remember the story behind the story, but he was so happy and so excited. I'm talking about the president, not J-Mac in their meeting. He was really almost sort of giddy with excitement, and then he went on and continued on his busy schedule. It's nice to see that. And he goes off to college come the fall.

"CNN LIVE TODAY" is coming up next. Let's get right to Daryn and find out what she's working on this morning.

Hey, Daryn.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, we were covering the arrival of the president, and we were just going to that in Rochester, New York, and then suddenly, I think that's Jason McElwain right alongside him there!

Well, we have a lot going on today as well. Coming up at the top of the hour, words this morning of hundreds more U.S. troops headed to Iraq. General Abizaid is about to testify on Capitol Hill. We'll see if he has any more details on the deployment.

Also ahead, should men be able to opt out of fatherhood? It is man versus woman. We have the president of NOW versus the executive director of the National Center for Men. You think sparks are going to fly? I think it's a good possibility. We'll get to that at the top of the hour.

S. O'BRIEN: I think you're right. All right, Daryn, thanks.

Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My friends are all married, and so I figured that I wanted to meet people that were in the same boat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: It's a new kind of dating service, a dating service for friendship. We'll explain ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Finding new friends is never easy. We all know that. Whether you're a single woman in your 30s or 40s or 50s, you know what, when all your friends have gotten married, boy, it's even harder. Well, one clever entrepreneur in New York learned the same thing when he talked to women on his single dating events. So he basically came up with a way to fix the problem.

M. O'BRIEN: Alina Cho always wants to have fun.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, that's right.

Well, you've heard the saying, both of you, a good man is hard to find. Well try finding a friend. As women get older, as you just heard from Soledad, more and more of them are finding that they are actually running out of friends. So they're trying to find new ones by using some of the same techniques they would use to find Mr. Right.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHO (voice-over): This could be just another day at the spa. A blow-dry, pedicure, massage and makeup application. Dorothy Busz is getting the full treatment.

DORTHY BUSZ, SINGLE WOMAN: Getting ready for the party.

CHO: Except this party is different.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies with the red tag, stay where you are. Ladies with the blue, rotate over one station.

CHO: It's like speed dating, except it's for single and divorced women. The U.S. Census says there are more of them today than ever before. These women, in the search for Mr. Right, are also looking for female companionship -- a friend, someone to go out with on a Saturday night.

This event begins at a spa on New York's Long Island, where the women primp, and in the process, begin to bond. They bond more over wine and cheese, and over beauty tips.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This just gave her a little bit of lift.

CROWD: Ooh!

CHO: The women-only events are the brainchild of Jay Rosensweig, founder of weekenddating.com. He got the idea after noticing women at his singles events were getting along really well with other women.

JAY ROSENWEIG, FOUNDER, WEEKENDDATING.COM: I said I need to do something to get women together in a platonic friendship type of way, because people seem to need it.

CHO: Dorothy is 55 and divorced for 15 years. Most of her friends are married or have moved away. BUSZ: Weekends that I would want to go out, well, this friend's not available or whatever. And there are fewer. So I wanted to do something different.

CHO: Sandra Saisa is 30.

(on camera): What I hear over and over again is that they're running out of female friends.

SANDRA SAISA, SINGLE WOMAN: That's for sure. And I'm in that situation. A lot of my friends are engaged, they're married, they're in serious relationships.

CHO (voice-over): Laura Kantreva (ph) and Gail Admoni met at the last women-only event. They have since become close friends.

GAIL ADMONI, SINGLE WOMAN: You know, it's just like when you meet a guy, you need that chemistry. I think the same thing applies for girlfriends.

CHO: Back at the Celestial Salon and Spa, Dorothy Busz and her new girlfriends are now ready for a night on the town.

Jay has arranged for them to meet up with some single men, but these women don't seem to care.

BUSZ: The guys, really, I have to say, are secondary. I mean, it's always nice to meet a nice guy, but this is a lot of fun. I'm having a ball, having an absolute ball.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHO: Now, all of the women we spoke to told us well, if they meet Mr. Right, that would simply be a bonus. At this event, they say finding a friend is their main goal. If they meet a man, guys, well, even better.

S. O'BRIEN: That's a nice attitude, I think.

M. O'BRIEN: Maybe that massage room? You know, might be the guy -- the right guy might be in there.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, come on.

CHO: Please.

S. O'BRIEN: That's nice -- I think that's very true. You know, once I had all the kids, I never had time for my single friends. Because when they came over, they're basically babysitting and helping me out. It wasn't as -- you know, as fun for them. Fun for me, not much fun for them.

CHO: Right. You know, it seems like a great idea, you know. We actually thought, well, it is such a great idea. This must be going on all across the country.

S. O'BRIEN: Is it?

CHO: But we did some research -- no, actually this was the only one of its kind that we could find, so maybe we're looking at..

(CROSSTALK)

M. O'BRIEN: Get down, Long Island! The trendsetter, once again.

S. O'BRIEN: That was my piece! That's where I'm from.

CHO: I know.

M. O'BRIEN: What about men doing this kind of thing? I don't see us doing the hair thing.

CHO: Well, that part maybe not.

S. O'BRIEN: Golf. Basically it's golf, right?

CHO: That's right. You know, the -- Jay, our party planner, said initially he thought maybe not, because, you know, women are traditionally a little more chatty and men traditionally a little more stand-offish. And interestingly enough, he said, you know, this is like speed dating. So you rotate stations. And he said men actually have a hard time following directions. Imagine that.

M. O'BRIEN: Uh-oh! Ouch! Geez!

CHO: Anyway, it may happen. It may happen. He...

S. O'BRIEN: I believe it. Alina, thank you very much.

Short break, guys. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: We're out of time. Let's get to Daryn Kagan. She's at the CNN Center, going to take you through the next few hours.

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