Old Man River

Everyone in the country knows about Hurricane Katrina. They have seen footage on the evening news of homes and lives devastated by the storm.

They have heard about rebuilding efforts. What most Americans may not realize is that “fixing the problem,” involves more than time and money. Vital to the country’s economy and culture, the Southern Louisiana and Mississippi region presents critical challenges in a number of areas, including marshland ecology and environmental engineering, structural and soil engineering, hydraulic engineering, and plate tectonics.

Faculty wanted to help students in CE30125: Computational Methods and CE30300: Introduction to Environmental Engineering better understand these challenges by having them learn about the area’s infrastructure, why the levee system failed, and the technologies that can help build a better and safer flood protection system. To accomplish this, they designed a tour of the area for students. All but one of the students, a mechanical engineering major, were from the Department of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences. Also joining the group were four members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stationed in the area.

The technology behind the rebuilding was one focus of the tour. As students visited the New Orleans District and Engineer Research and Development Center, they met with senior project managers, the district engineer, and the head of the Hurricane Protection Office, who explained the reconstruction process. Corps engineers also demonstrated physical models that are being used to better understand levee behavior. They toured the 26th largest supercomputer in the world, which is being used to analyze hurricane storm surge and hydrodynamic loads in the area, and they were able to see pump stations and other facilities, such as the Old River Control Structure that keeps the Mississippi River flowing by New Orleans instead of changing course toward the Atchafalaya River.

Another focus was the link between natural geologic processes and the engineered environment, specifically balancing the needs of the environment with the safety of area residents and the economic importance (locally and nationally) of waterways and ocean and inland navigation.

During the trip students were able to experience the food and culture that is uniquely New Orleans. More important, they saw a personal side to engineering, the humanity motivating the technology. In an article for Notre Dame’s Observer, the student newspaper, junior Dustin Mennella wrote: “An area called the Ninth Ward was in close proximity to one of the levee breaches and, as one would imagine, was hit hard. Here, the water did not just flood the area — a tidal wave of escaping water crushed everything in its path. ... Even the trees had died, due to the salt content of the floodwater. Telephone poles laid on the ground, and more than once all that was left of a house were the front steps, because the entire house had simply been swept away. Incredible as the destruction was, hope remains, and the people of New Orleans are slowly but surely returning and rebuilding.”

For detailed information about the trip, visit http://www.nd.edu/~jjwteach/30125/fieldtrip.html.

A total of 49 undergraduates, two graduate students, four members of the Notre Dame faculty and staff, and four members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers toured the Southern Louisiana and Mississippi region in November 2006. The trip was sponsored in part by the Murphy Travel Fund, provided to the Department of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences by Dennis F. Murphy (B.S., CEGEOS ’71).