Katrina: Levee Breach

Following Hurricane Katrina, Lambert & Nelson, PLC worked with other New Orleans firms to discover the cause of the drainage canal and Industrial Canal failures which led to extensive flooding throughout the city of New Orleans. The drainage canals that failed were the 17th Street Canal, the Orleans Avenue Canal, and the London Avenue Canal. Additionally, the Industrial Canal failed and led to extensive flooding of the Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish. As it turns out, each failed for a different reason. The Orleans and London Avenue Canals failed due to improper design and incompletion, in that certain areas along the canals simply were either not finished or improperly designed to insufficient heights. The 17th Street Canal failed due to insufficient installation of "sheet pilings" which allowed under piling/levee seepage, and weakened the structure to the point of failure in predictable storm conditions. The insufficient length of the sheet piles (how deep the sheet piles were driven in to the ground) was further exacerbated by the canal having been dredged to a deeper depth than originally planed.

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana found that the canals were part of the flood control project authorized by United States Congress, and despite the failure to complete the project and despite the Army Corps of Engineers’ failure to consider the channel depth issue in issuing the dredging permit, the Corp was still entitled to immunity. Plaintiffs maintain that because the canals were "drainage" canals (because they could be replaced with a pipe) and not properly considered as flood control, the Corps should not be entitled to immunity.

That decision is currently being appealed to the United States 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.