Engineering Broken Levies

After surviving the hurricane, New Orleans is now in more danger from it's own precarious design. A 200 yard breach is no laughing matter, I read somewhere these are earthen levies. That means every minute of flow errodes more and deeper. This isn't about 3000 lb. sandbags anymore: It is now a serious engineering problem.

According to the mayor, Black Hawk helicopters were scheduled to pick up and drop massive 3,000-pound sandbags in the 17th Street Canal breach, but were diverted on rescue missions. Nagin said neglecting to fix the problem has set the city behind by at least a month.

Everyone knows what happens if you don't fix the crack in the dam fast enough. I hope someone down there has the know-how to fix this. I like the idea of using sand filler shipping containers (I'm imagining the kind on trains). The trick will be sealing the breach without increasing flow elsewhere and not creating high-flow channels that cause more erosion.

If there's any way to drain any of the lake into the ocean (I don't know if it's above or below sea-level) that's an obvious help too. (Even draining the lake an inch could make a big difference)

Professionally, it's dissapointing to see an engineering failure of this magnitude. It's even more disappointing when the obvious corrective action was missed, and the problem because worse. On one hand the mayor is right to complain about poor leadership, on the other hand, he needs to be constructive cause they're still in a huge mess. They need somebody large and in-charge down there and they need a damn good plan ASAP. Go Army! We're all rooting for you!