Rodd Zolkos in Business Insurance: A massive new system aimed at reducing hurricane and storm damage risk in Greater New Orleans that was developed in response to the catastrophic effects of Hurricane Katrina will be completed soon, though its impact on insurance rates might take longer to be realized, some say.The $14.6 billion Greater New Orleans Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System was more than 97% complete late last year, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hoping to finish the project by the end of June.
In late October, a group of insurance industry executives—and Business Insurance—toured many key features of the new risk reduction system with the corps. The tour was organized by Warren Perkins, vp and risk manager at Boh Bros. Construction Co. L.L.C. in New Orleans, and was intended to educate the insurance market about the risk-reduction improvements coming online in New Orleans in hopes they'd affect the area's insurance pricing and capacity.
The 133-mile perimeter system is designed to withstand a 100-year event, with the corps having improved and strengthened nearly all the levees, floodwalls, pump stations and surge protectors along that perimeter.
...“The system doesn't resemble what was here before Hurricane Katrina in terms of the level or risk reduction provided,” said Michael F. Park, chief of Task Force Hope in Louisiana, part of the Corps of Engineers' Mississippi Valley Division. The nearly completed risk-reduction system focuses on stopping storm surge at Greater New Orleans' perimeter, and pumping any potential floodwaters out of that perimeter.... Now if faced with a storm similar in track and intensity as Hurricane Katrina, “We should fare quite nicely in terms of flood risk reduction,” Mr. Park said....
Flood gates and new pumps under construction near Lake Pontchartrain end of Orleans Canal to prevent storm surge coming in to city via canal again. Shot by Infrogmation, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license
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