CAEE Department Guest Seminar - Hurricane Katrina: Court Ruling on Floodwall Failures

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

3:00 PM-4:00 PM

Timothy D. Stark, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, D.GE
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall and devastated New Orleans with maximum sustained surface winds of 298 km (175 miles) per hour. Litigation ensued to recoup some of the extensive losses (~$200 billion) for almost eight years by property owners against a variety of parties. The ruling on April 12, 2013, essentially ended the litigation against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) when Judge Duval ruled against property owners in the Lower Ninth Ward that were inundated by two breaches of the floodwall along the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (IHNC). This lecture will discuss the events prior to and during Hurricane Katrina; the negligence claim brought by Lower Ninth Ward property owners against the USACE, the USACE’s defense to the negligence claim, and the substantial cause of the two breaches.

Dr. Stark has received a number of awards for his research, teaching, and service including the Thomas A. Middlebrooks Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in 2013 and 1998; Editor of the Year by the ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 2011; R.M. Quigley Award from the Canadian Geotechnical Society, 2006; R.S. Ladd ASTM Standards Development Award from the ASTM, 2014, 2011, and 2002, and Walter L. Huber Research Prize from ASCE, 1999.