12 time, september 12, 2005

LOUISIANA SUPERDOMEAs aid began to trickle into the city,thousands waited for evacuation

17th STREET CANALHelicopters dropped giant sandbagsin an effort to seal the initial breach

Mississippi River

Lakeview

Levee

Levee

TulaneUniversity

LoyolaUniversity

AudubonPark

Metairie

Jefferson

Orle

ans

Ave.

Can

al

17th

S

t. Ca

nal

Water- treatmentplant

17th St.Canalbreach

A N A M E R I CA N T RAG E DY

New Orleans is surrounded by a 350-mile (563 km) system of levees that hold back the waters of the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. When three levees failed, the city filled like a bathtub

WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS

Floodwaters may have risen past the tops of the levees. The city’s pumping system, designed to handle smaller storms, lost power and failed

1

Canal

Levee walls

OVERTOPPING

Because the flooding didn’t begin until after the hurricane, some suspect the levees may have leaked from within. The water pressure would have turned tiny cracks into gaping holes

2 BREACHING

Crews have been trying to plug the collapsed levees with giant sandbags and concrete barriers. Once the levees are sealed, the challenge of draining the city begins. That job could take months

3 REPAIR

New Orleans Under

St. CharlesHospital

UniversityHospital

MemorialMedicalCenter

MemorialMedicalCenter

TulaneHospital

TIME Graphic byEd Gabel andLon Tweeten;text by Kristina Dell

Sources: Dean Gesch, U.S. Geological Survey; Army Corps of Engineers; Digital Globe; New Orleans Times-Picayune. Inset model of downtown New Orleans “Intelligent 3D Map” provided by ITspatial, imagery provided by Sanborn Mapping

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time, september 12, 2005 13

More than12 ft. (3.7 m)abovesea level

More than9 ft. (2.7 m)belowsea level

Sea level

CONVENTION CENTERLynn Jackson, 46, hugs her daughterafter being rescued from her home

Lake Pontchartrain

Levee

St. LouisCemetery1 and 2

Mount OlivetCemetery

Fairgrounds

Arabi

FrenchQuarter

GardenDistrict

CityPark

WestBank

FrenchQuarter

GardenDistrict

CityPark

AudubonPark

Metairie

Downtown

London Ave.Canal breach

PontchartrainPark

Universityof New Orleans

London Ave. Canal

Second London Ave.Canal breach

IndustrialCanal breach

Water The storm passed, and the city had survived. Then a levee broke. The worst-case scenario had arrived

Vertical scale is exaggerated

Mississippi River

WHERE WATER IS HIGHER THAN LAND

DOWNTOWN MOSTLY DRY

Approximateextent offlooding French

Quarter

Superdome

Much of New Orleans’ main

business district is built on the highest ground in the

city. The Superdome

wasn’t so lucky

Lake Pontchartrain

New Orleans sits in a wide, shallow bowl, with the levees ofthe Mississippi as one rim and the levees of Lake Pontchartrain as the other. The bottom of the bowl is filled with small ridges, which created small islands when the city flooded

St. ClaudeMedicalCenter

Charity Hospital

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