Hurricane Katrina

Schedule of events

Dress for all sessions is business casual.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Registration and Reception

7:45 pm

Welcome and Opening Remarks
William J. Marcuson, III, President, American Society of Civil Engineers

"The Delta Works: The Dutch Response to the 1953 Floor Disaster"
Robert Hoeksema (author of Designed for Dry Feet)
Professor of Engineering, Calvin College

Monday, September 25, 2006 (Day 1 - East Salon)

7:30 am - 8:30 am

Registration

8:00 am

Continental Breakfast

8:25 am

Welcome
Timothy P. Ryan, Chancellor, University of New Orleans

8:30 am

Opening Remarks
G. Wayne Clough, President, Georgia Tech

9:00 am - 11:45 am

The Hurricane Protection System

The Southeast Louisiana Hurricane Protection System failed to protect New Orleans and surrounding areas from the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. Successful rebuilding of the New Orleans area will be dependent on having a hurricane protection system that is the product of a risk-based approach to design and operation. This session will focus on the needs and challenges of rebuilding the hurricane protection system for the future protection of the New Orleans area.

9:00 am - 9:30 am

"Overview of the New Orleans Hurricane Protection System (HPS)"
Peter Nicholson, Assoc. Professor and Graduate Chair
Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Hawaii

9:30 am - 10:30 am

"Maintaining Cities in Louisiana's Subsiding Coastal Lowlands"
Sherwood M. Gagliano, President, Coastal Environments, Inc.

10:00 am

Break

10:15 am - 10:45 am

"High Resolution Unstructured Grid Storm Surge Modeling for Southern Louisiana"
Joannes J. Westerink, Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences, University of Notre Dame

10:45 am - 11:15 am

Risk and Reliability
Robert B. Gilbert, Professor and Phil M. Ferguson Fellow of Civil Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin

11:15 am - 11:45 am

Developing Category 5 Hurricane Protection for South Louisiana
Gregory Miller, Project Manager, Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District, Hurricane Protection Office

12:00 pm

Lunch (Esplanade Room)
Introduction - Sean O'Keefe, Chancellor, Louisiana State University
Key Note - Mitch Landrieu, Lieutenant Governor, State of Louisiana

1:00 pm - 2:45 pm

STRUCTURES

In the aftermath of Katrina several groups systematically documented the performance of affected structures.  Of particular interest are bridges, major buildings, and residential construction.  This work provides a number of lessons important to the rebuilding.

1:00 pm - 1:30 pm

"Performance of Transportation Systems During Hurricane Katrina"
Reginald DesRoches, Associate Professor and Associate Chair, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Tech

1:30 pm - 2:00 pm

"Is Our Present Technology Reliable Enough To Maintain Accurate Records On Wind And Storm Surges During Hurricanes Along Coastal Regions?"
Subhash Kulkarni, President, Kulkarni Consultants, Structural and Civil Engineers

2:00 pm

Break

2:15 pm - 2:45 pm

"Flood Mitigation for Structures in the Gulf Coast Region"
Norma Jean Mattei, Associate Professor, University of New Orleans

2:45 pm - 4:15 pm

POWER
After Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and the Gulf region, destruction of power and energy supplies imposed a severe impedance on almost all the efforts on the rescuing frontlines and following recovery. One of the unique features of the Katrina aftermath is the prolonged loss of main grid power from several weeks to several months in all affected areas.  This session will review the impact of the storm on (a) main grid power (b) destruction to industries including gas and oil, petrochemical, chemical, etc. and (c) destruction to other infrastructure such as water, sewage, pump station, communication, sanitation, hospitals, etc. Potential solutions will be discussed based on the lessons learned to provide continuous energy supplies through dedicated emergency grid power, or through dedicated natural gas pipelines, or by employing distributed generation to mitigate part of the power-outage problems. This session will also propose prevention and recovery approaches to other natural or man-made disasters that could happen in other cities.

2:45 pm - 3:15 pm

"Entergy's response to Katrina - looking back, looking forward"
Randy Helmick, Vice President of Transmission,
Entergy Services, Inc.

3:15 pm - 3:45 pm

"Resilient Energy Systems"
Dan Bullock, Senior Research Scientist, Dept. of Energy Regional Combined Heat & Power Centers

3:45 pm - 4:15 pm

"Relationships between Power and other Critical Energy Infrastructure"
David Dismukes, Professor and Associate Director, Center for Energy Studies, Louisiana State University

4:15 pm - 4:45 pm

COMMUNICATIONS

The communications infrastructure in the New Orleans / Gulf region suffered heavy damage from Katrina and the flooding that followed.  Robust communications can be a lifeline for coordination during and after disaster strikes.  This session will highlight the storm’s impact on the wired and wireless communications infrastructure, approaches to rebuilding and improving the infrastructure, interdependencies among infrastructure elements and lessons learned toward enhancing continuity of operations for response and recovery in the future.

4:15 pm - 4:45 pm

"Rebuilding a Broadband Network after Katrina - Lessons Learned"
Greg Bicket, Vice President and Regional Manager, Cox Communications New Orleans

4:45 pm

WRAP-UP & CLOSING REMARKS

7:00 PM

Dinner (Royal Garden Terrace - 2nd floor)
Welcome and Introduction of Keynote Speaker
Paul Barron, Interim Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost/Chief Information Officer, Tulane University.

Key Note Address
"Rebuilding New Orleans"
Reed Kroloff - Dean, College of Architecture, Tulane University.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006 (Day 2 - East Salon)

8:00 am

Continental Breakfast

8:25 am

Opening Remarks

8:30 am - 10:00 am

COMMUNICATIONS

8:30 am - 9:00 am

"Survivability Considerations for Design of Government Wireless Systems"
Clay Whitehead, Customer Solutions Architect - Motorola, Inc.

9:00 am - 9:30 am

"A Reborn Network for a Reborn City - Engineering the Restoration"
Robert Suarez, Director - Engineering, Bellsouth Telecommunications, Inc.

9:30 am - 10:00 am

"Intrinsic Vulnerabilities in Network Infrastructure"
Karl Rauscher, Executive Director, Bell Labs Network Reliability & Security Office, Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies

10:00 am

Break

10:15 am - 11:15 am

ENVIRONMENTAL

10:15 am - 10:45 am

"Contaminants and Solid Wastes: Issues and Concerns"
Danny Reible, University of Texas

10:45 am - 11:15 am

"Hurricane Katrina's Impact on the New Orleans City Water System: How the System was Restored and the Lessons Learned"
Jack Huerkamp, Chief of Operations at Carrollton Water Plant

11:15 am - 11:45 am

HUMAN FACTORS

Sometimes the simplest truths are the ones that are the most elusive. Although not all disasters directly impact people, people through their behavior are involved either directly or indirectly in all aspects of disasters, including occurrence and, of course, rebuilding. Thus, discussions about disasters that do not explicitly include humans and their behavior have limited utility. The sessions that follow on human factors strive to reveal the nature of these truths and propose useful and valuable insights and solutions to post-Katrina recovery and a sustainable future for the New Orleans region.

11:15 am - 11:45 am

"Societal Aspects of Katrina and Reconstruction in New Orleans"
Dennis Mileti, Professor Emeritus, University of Colorado at Boulder

12:00 pm

Lunch (Esplanade Room)

12:45 pm - 1:45 pm

Panel Discussion "The Social Impacts of the Catastrophe"
Moderators-
Pamela Jenkins, Professor of Sociology and Director of Women and Gender Studies, University of New Orleans
Mary Elizabeth "Betsy" Garrison, Professor of Family Science, Louisiana State University Ag Center and Associate Dean, College of Agriculture, Louisiana State University

1:45 pm - 2:00 pm

Break

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Summary Roundtable Discussion
Facilitator - Tom O'Rourke, Thomas R. Briggs Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University

4:00 pm

Closing Remarks / Adjourn

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

For people involved in report writing only

8:00 am

Breakfast

8:30 am

WRITE DRAFT REPORT