Katrina's Mark on Technology

As a boy growing up, hurricanes were more exciting than terrifying. One I recall quite vividly was Hurricane Carol, which ripped through New England on Aug. 30, 1954, the day before my fifth birthday. My major concern was that my birthday party would be postponed, which it was. Waiting 24 or 48 hours is an eternity for a 5 year old.

By no means does this anecdote mean to trivialize the powerful impact of a hurricane like Katrina, which caused pain, suffering and dislocation that remains widespread as the second, and relatively quiet, 2007 hurricane season since draws to a close. Katrina reached Category 5 intensity while Carol was only a Category 3, although I remember a lot of trees snapped off at their trunks.

Think how much more devastating Katrina and the aftermath would have been without mobile phones and wireless communications. There would have been many more casualties. In 1954, wireless communication was largely confined to police cars, fire trucks, cabs and the military.

At the same time, bad technology in the form of poorly built levees and a 76-mile shipping shortcut to the Gulf of Mexico was blamed for much of the inundation in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish along the Mississippi River. Today, the population in St. Bernard Parish is a quarter of what it was before Katrina.

Much of the flooding was caused by the man-made waterway known as MRGO (Mississippi River Gulf Outlet) for which the Army Corps of Engineers has recommended closure. The residents of St. Bernard Parish call it the “Hurricane Highway” from the funnel effect it created that overwhelmed New Orleans and its drainage canals. Heading north, Katrina passed directly overhead, pushing a 25-ft wall of water up the MRGO straight to St. Bernard Parish and New Orleans.

So, we shouldn't paint all technology with the same positive brush. Some is good and some is bad although it's impossible to say what would have precisely happened if MRGO didn't exist.

Here's the good. Maintaining a viable wireless and mobile phone network capable of handling surges and surviving natural disasters is a life saver. A practical and swift evacuation plan saves lives. Pumps, such as the ones described in Joe Ogando's story, that can outrun Mother Nature are critical. Indeed, those pumps needed a lot of engineering.

But sometimes, it's best to not do anything. In 1956, Congress OK'd MRGO in the name of efficiency and national defense. Work started in 1958 and it was completed 10 years later. It has been nothing short of an ecological and economic disaster. On May 19, the Army Corps announced it would close MRGO as the best thing to do “economically and environmentally.” In 2000, the national census pegged St. Bernard Parish's population at 67,229. On July 1, it had declined by 76.9 percent. Only two homes in the parish were spared by the 5 to 12 ft of standing rat and snake-infested water.

In the main, technology is crucial to not only surviving a hurricane like Katrina, but also to quickly returning to a normal life post-storm. New materials create stronger homes. Wireless keeps us in touch with rescuers. And levees, flood gates and massive pumps can keep homes dry. Most of the time, technology helps, but not always. One thing we can count on is that there will be more Katrinas.

Write me at john.dodge@reedbusiness.com or visit my blog Design Engineering at Large.

	Water poured into and flooded New Orleans after the poorly built levees were breached, destroying everything in its wake.