Like many Hurricane Katrina survivors, former Louisiana State University research scientist and instructor Ivor van Heerden sometimes tears up at certain memories. He didn’t lose a house or a family member. He lost his career. That still hurts because it was taken from him by the people he was trying to help.
Author Archives: Bob Marshall
From 2013 to 2017, Bob Marshall covered environmental issues for The Lens, with a special focus on coastal restoration and wetlands. While at The Times-Picayune, his work chronicling the people, stories and issues of Louisiana
Posted inEnvironment, Government & Politics
Deepwater Horizon settlements helped Obama come through with wetlands restoration funding
Louisiana will get almost $8 billion for restoration projects from BP.
Posted inEnvironment, Government & Politics
Rebuilt levees don’t meet goal to protect New Orleans against Category 5 hurricane
The levees wouldn’t collapse in a powerful hurricane, but storm surge probably would push over the top.
Posted inEnvironment
Post-Katrina reforms make levee, floodwall inspections a daily job
If local levee boards had followed inspection rules before Hurricane Katrina, they may have known about weaknesses before parts of the flood protection system collapsed in the storm. Now 11 employees work full-time inspecting and testing levees, floodwalls and equipment around New Orleans.
Posted inEnvironment
The BP settlement is only a downpayment on the massive coastal restoration bill
The settlement provides assured, quick money, but far less than advocates hoped.
Posted inEnvironment
Water and subsidence: “You can’t manage what you don’t measure”
New Orleans leaders long believed that the city’s safety lay in draining the soggy mud sponge it was built on. But as it drained, it also shrank, pulling most of the city below sea level. Officials now say the best way to control the damage roiling the area is by keeping that sponge full. First, they need a way to monitor what’s happening below.
Posted inEnvironment
Environmentalists worry that first RESTORE grants focus on just small efforts
These are nervous times for some supporters of the RESTORE Act, the law that will divert 80 percent of the fines BP will pay for polluting the Gulf of Mexico from the federal purse to projects intended to restore the Gulf ecosystem and economy. They want to ensure that big money will pay for big projects.
Posted inEnvironment
If you like your flood-insurance rates, you should love it when your street floods
The rain-storage capacity of our roadways adds enough to keep FEMA certification.
Posted inEnvironment
St. Bernard residents could see flooding, higher insurance after tax rejection
Head of regional flood authority says Lake Borgne levee district now unable to fix major problems.
Posted inEnvironment
Early results from study of river sediment show enough to make diversions work
Further research necessary, scientists say; state still hasn’t made final decision on building diversions.