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Big Easy Not Ready for '100-Year Storm'

Official says city is up to pre-Katrina levels, but unprepared for bigger disaster

By Drew Nelles, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 31, 2008 3:44 PM CDT

(Newser) – With Hurricane Gustav set to thrash the Big Easy almost exactly 3 years after Katrina, Newsweek sits down with New Orleans Levee District executive director Stevan Spencer to find out what will change this time around. “We are better than before Katrina —we've raised the levees and strengthened or replaced the floodwalls,” he says.

But that doesn’t mean New Orleans is ready for anything that might hit it. The city still isn’t equipped to deal with what are called “100-year-storms” —the sort of brutal hurricanes that only come around once per century. And Katrina, Spencer says, was a “300-year-plus” storm. “Everything has been repaired and rebuilt to pre-Katrina levels,” he says. “It's not at 100-year flood event levels.”

[Images (4)]

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A FEMA trailer sits beside a house that is still vacant from Hurricane Katrina in the Gentilly section of New Orleans as Hurricane Gustav approaches the city, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2008. (AP Photo/David Quinn)

Water valves are in place at the 17th Street Canal in New Orleans, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2008. The valves will flow water out of the city should Hurricane Gustav create a breach in the levee system. (AP Photo/David Quinn)

Elton Driscoll, engineer for the Royal Sonesta Hotel in New Orleans' French Quarter, places a sandbag on a sidewalk barrier that runs by the hotel, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2008. (AP Photo/Ron Heflin)

A row of extra sand bags sits atop the Lake Pontchartrain levee in New Orleans as the city prepares for Hurricane Gustav, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2008. (AP Photo/David Quinn)

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A Cat 4 storm from the right direction could overtop the walls. A Cat 5 from another direction may not. There are so many variables. (We've) been running models for days but all we can do is close the flood gates. - Levee District exec Stevan Spencer

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Big Easy Not Ready for '100-Year Storm'