THE INVESTIGATION TEAM The University of California at Berkeley led Independent Levee Investigation Team (ILIT) grew through the course of this investigation, and eventually numbered 35 very dedicated and accomplished individuals. The team included a large number of leading experts across a diverse range of fields. Team members came from six states, and they came from universities, private engineering firms, and state and federal agencies. As a group, the investigation team had very impressive prior experience with forensic studies of major disasters and catastrophes. For example, the team members had previously investigated 12 major earthquakes and 8 major hurricanes (both domestic and foreign), 14 dam failures, more than a dozen levee failures, numerous landslides, one tsunami, the pivotal Kettleman Hills waste landfill failure, the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters, the Exxon Valdez tanker disaster, and a number of major offshore pipeline and oil platform failures. They are well experienced with the carnage and disarray of disasters, and with the unforgettable smell of death. They are also well experienced at the delicate and deliberate art and science of piecing their way through the devastation, carefully and professionally, and figuring out what had happened, and why; the art and science of engineering forensics. The calibre of these assembled experts is such that we could never possibly haveafforded to hire them. Instead, excepting a handful of graduate research students who worked for very low wages, these world class experts all volunteered, and they worked pro bono (for free.) They did this for the intellectual challenge, for the camaraderie of a very special group of accomplished colleagues, for the chance to make a positive difference, because it was important, and most importantly because it was the right and necessary thing to do. The pages that follow list the names and affiliations of the members of the Independent Levee Investigation Team. I have had the opportunity to work on a number of investigations of major catastrophes and disasters, but I have never worked with a finer group. They are all heroes in my book. Dr. Raymond B. SeedHead, ILIT New Orleans Systems Independent Levee Hurricane Katrina Investigation Team July 31, 2006 The Independent Levee Investigation Team Remon I. Abdelmalak, Ph.D., Graduate Researcher, Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University, TX Adda G. Athanasopoulos, P.E., Ph.D. Student, Department of Civil and EnvironmentalEngineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA Robert G. Bea, Ph.D., P.E., G.E., S.E., Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA Gordon P. Boutwell, Jr., Ph.D., P.E., President, Soil Testing Engineers, Inc., Baton Rouge & New Orleans, LA Jonathan D. Bray, Ph.D., P.E., Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA Jean-Louis Briaud, Ph.D., P.E., Professor and Holder of the Buchanan Chair, Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University, TX Carmen Cheung, Graduate Researcher, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA Diego Cobos-Roa, P.E., Graduate Researcher, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA Julien Cohen-Waeber, Graduate Researcher, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA Brian D. Collins, Ph.D., P.E., Research Civil Engineer, United States Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA Luke Ehrensing, P.E., President, Thigpen Construction, New Orleans, LA. Dan A. Farber, J.D., Sho Sato Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley, CA W. Michael Hanneman, Ph.D., Chancellor's Professor, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics and Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, CA Leslie F. Harder. Jr., Ph.D. P.E., Acting Deputy Director for Public Safety, California Department of Water Resources, Sacramento, CA Kofi Inkabi, Graduate Researcher, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA Anne M. Kammerer, Ph.D., P.E., Senior Risk Consultant, Arup, San Francisco, CA Deniz Karadeniz, Ph.D., Candidate, Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering, University of Missouri-Rolla, MO Robert E. Kayen, Ph.D., P.E., Research Scientist, United States Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA Robb E. S. Moss, Ph.D., P.E., Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, California Polytechnic Institute and State University, San Luis Obispo, CA Jennifer Nicks, Graduate Researcher, Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University, TX - xxvii - New Orleans Systems Independent Levee Hurricane Katrina Investigation Team July 31, 2006 Seshu Nimala, Graduate Researcher, Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, Oregon State University, OR Juan M. Pestana, Ph.D., P.E., Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA Jim Porter, C.E.T., Soil Testing Engineers, Inc., Baton Rouge & New Orleans, LA Keunyong Rhee, Graduate Researcher, Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University, TX Michael F. Riemer, Ph.D., Associate Adjunct Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA Karlene Roberts, Ph.D., Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, CA J. David Rogers, Ph.D., P.E., R.G., Hasselmann Chair in Geological Engineering, University of Missouri-Rolla, MO Raymond B. Seed, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA Rune Storesund, P.E., Consulting Engineer, Storesund Consulting, Albany, CA Anand V Govindsamy, Graduate Researcher, Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University. TX Xavier Vera-Grunauer, P.E., CVA Consulting group, Guayaquil, Ecuador Joseph Wartman, Ph.D., P.E., Assistant Professor, Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA Conor M. Watkins, Graduate Researcher, Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering, University of Missouri-Rolla, MO Ed Wenk, Jr., D. Eng., Emeritus Professor of Engineering, Public Administration and Social Management of Technology, University of Washington at Seattle, WA Solomon C. Yim, Ph.D., P.E., Professor, Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, Oregon State University, OR ---------------------- New Orleans Systems Independent Levee Hurricane Katrina Investigation Team July 31, 2006 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report would not have been possible without the generous help of many individualsand organizations. This project was supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation (NSF) underGrants No. CMS-0413327 and CMS-0611632, and additional support was provided by the Center for Information Technology Research in the service of Society (CITRIS) at the University of California at Berkeley. This support is gratefully acknowledged. The authors also wish to express their gratitude to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers(USACE) for their considerable assistance with numerous elements of this work. Their field investigation team from the Engineer Research Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg hosted and assisted our own field investigation team in the critical early days of late September and early October. The USACE has also posted massive amounts of background documents on their website, and this has been an invaluable resource. The USACE, and the Interagency Performance Evaluation Team (IPET) have graciously shared much of their field and laboratory data, and we have done the same. This positive sharing and collaboration helps everyone by providing the best possible basis for study and analysis of this event. We are also deeply grateful to the honorable men and women of the USACE who havetaken extra measures to help to provide additional documents, data and insight. Many of these prefer not to be named, but their dedication to service of the greater public good in this difficult situation has been admirable. We are deeply grateful to the members of the State of Louisiana’s independent investigation team, Team Louisiana, for their tremendous efforts and dogged persistence under very difficult circumstances, and for their generous mutual sharing of data and insightsthroughout this investigation. This team consists of Dr. Ivor Van Heerden, Dr. Paul Kemp and Dr. Hassan Mashriqui (all from the Louisiana State University Hurricane Research Center), Billy Prochaska and Dr. Lou Cappozzoli (both local geotechnical consultants), and Art Theis (retired head of the Louisiana Department of Public Works.) The people of Louisiana, and the nation, owe these gentlemen a great debt as their persistent efforts have, time and again, produced critical data and insights that would not otherwise have been available. We are also grateful to the members of the field investigation team of the AmericanSociety of Civil Engineers, who jointly formed a combined team with ours in the urgent initial post-event field studies when it was of vital importance to gather all possible data and observations while (fully necessary) emergency repair operations were already damaging and burying critical evidence. This was a very strong field forensics team, and their collaboration both in the field and in the subsequent preparation of an initial Preliminary Report which was issued in early November of 2005, was of great value. Finally we are deeply grateful to the many others who will remain anonymous, but whohave assisted by providing information, data, background history and other information that might otherwise not have been available. A great many people gave generously of themselves, their time, |
