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Berkeley engineers mobilize in response to Hurricane Katrina
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At a town hall meeting held in Sibley Auditorium the week after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, CEE professor Robert Bea described his own experience with Hurricane Betsy when it hit New Orleans 40 years ago. “Don’t criticize or politicize,” he advised. “These are the times to pull together. When the water drains, learn everything you can. Think ahead to the future.”
AARON WALBURG PHOTO |
Berkeley Engineering faculty, staff, and students assembled at a town hall meeting in Sibley Auditorium the week following Hurricane Katrina’s August 29 landfall to mobilize forces in the form of research efforts and outreach to those displaced by one of the greatest natural disasters in U.S. history.
In a particularly personal presentation, CEE professor Robert Bea told of his own experience in September 1965 when he, his wife, and their four-month-old son tried to flee New Orleans with Hurricane Betsy at their backs.
“The levees broke,” Bea said. “I could just see the top of our house under 12 feet of water. There was no FEMA, no flood insurance. Everything was lost.”
Bea has been instrumental in organizing research initiatives arising from that initial town hall meeting through the Katrina Recovery Task Force (KRTF), an inter-related team of civil engineers and other Berkeley researchers who are studying the hurricane’s effects, serving as advisors in the recovery, and documenting important lessons learned.
The KRTF research projects include Bea’s study of damaged coastal and offshore facilities; an investigation led by Haas professor Karlene Roberts into evacuation, health care, and other human social dynamics in response to the hurricane; and Berkeley geotechnical engineering professor Ray Seed’s research on the New Orleans flood protection system.
Seed led a week-long field trip to New Orleans October 2 to investigate the failure of the city’s levee infrastructure. His team’s initial findings revealed that the three downtown levees failed not because they were overtopped by floodwater, as previously believed, but because their supporting pilings had not been driven deep enough into stable soil.
“It’s important to get our report out as soon as possible,” Seed said, “before [the Army Corps of Engineers] makes final decisions on how to rebuild the levee system.” The team will submit a formal report to the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Corps next spring. The KRTF research is sponsored by the NSF and CITRIS, the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society.
Berkeley is also hosting a number of university students and researchers displaced by the hurricane. The Katrina Emergency Fund and a University Health Services website have been established to provide financial support and traumatic stress counseling for visitors from the storm-ravaged area.
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