Col. Lewis Setliff, the engineer overseeing the levee repairs for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said the Corps only has the authority to rebuild levees to the strength they were prior to the storms that damage them. The levees that broke were built to withstand Category 3 hurricanes, which have winds up to 130 mph.
Without approval from Congress, the Army engineers cannot build the levees higher and stronger. Setliff said about 10 percent of the New Orleans area levee system was either broken or eroded, mostly because of water running over the tops of the barriers. The Corps has had eyewitness reports of water topping the levee there, said Walter Baumy, chief of engineering for the New Orleans District. One barge sat Wednesday on top of what was left of an earthen portion of the levee. If the Corps gets approval to build higher levees, engineers could in some cases build on top of what is already there.
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