The timeline
The failure of the levees was 40 years in the making. Here is the story in order, with links to the lesson that explains each step.
Before the storm
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1897
A sinking coast is predicted
Civil engineer Elmer L. Corthell writes in National Geographic that levees withholding sediment from the delta, combined with subsidence, will one day require a protective levee against the Gulf.
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1923
The Industrial Canal opens
The 5.5-mile canal connects Lake Pontchartrain to the Mississippi River and splits the Ninth Ward in two.
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1928
Flood Control Act of 1928
Section 702c makes the United States immune from liability for damage caused by floods — including floods caused by failed federal flood control projects.
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1965September
Hurricane Betsy
The Industrial Canal breaches on its east side. Eighty percent of the Lower Ninth Ward goes underwater; the city reports 81 deaths. The MR-GO shipping channel opens the same year.
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1965
Flood Control Act of 1965
Congress authorizes the Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection Project and makes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers solely responsible for its design and construction.
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1970–1977
The barrier plan stalls
The Corps designs sea gates at the Rigolets and Chef Menteur passes. A court finds its four-page environmental impact statement inadequate. The Corps never writes a better one.
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1982
GAO faults the Corps' pace
A General Accounting Office report reprimands the Army Corps for its glacial pace in building New Orleans' hurricane protection.
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1985
The E-99 sheet pile test
The Corps begins a sheet pile load test near Morgan City. It misreads the results and concludes sheet piles need go no deeper than about 17 feet, instead of 31 to 46. The shortcut saves about $100 million.
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1990–1991
Higher walls for the drainage canals
After the Corps itself chose higher walls for the 17th Street Canal, the Orleans Levee Board openly lobbies Congress for the same plan on the London Avenue and Orleans Avenue Canals. Congress orders it.
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1999–2000
Canal walls completed
The raised floodwalls along the 17th Street and London Avenue Canals are completed — with sheet piles that are too short.
Learn more → August 2005
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Aug 26Friday
The forecast shifts
Late in the afternoon, every forecast model shifts west and New Orleans lands in the center of the cone. Governor Blanco declares a state of emergency.
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Aug 27Saturday
Contraflow begins
By 4:00 p.m., all inbound lanes are reversed. About 93% of the region evacuates — the most successful rapid evacuation of a major U.S. city. No one warns that the levees could break.
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Aug 294:30 a.m.
First water at the Industrial Canal
Water blows out a sandbag plug where a damaged floodgate was missing at the CSX Railroad crossing.
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Aug 29Early morning
The east washes away
Levees of sand and shell along the GIWW and MR-GO erode, flooding New Orleans East and virtually all of St. Bernard Parish. Breaches open on both sides of the Industrial Canal.
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Aug 29Mid-morning
The canal walls fall
Floodwalls fail on both sides of the London Avenue Canal and, between 8:45 and 9:45 a.m., on the 17th Street Canal — with water well below their tops. Eighty percent of New Orleans floods.
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Sept 282005
The fairy tale begins
Congressional testimony based on a 22-year-old report suggests local sponsors and environmentalists hamstrung the Corps.
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Oct 202005
“Levee board reform” is drafted
Seven weeks after the flood, a business group has a plan to reorganize the levee boards — years before any investigation is complete.
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Dec 32005
Levees.org goes online
Sandy Rosenthal and her 15-year-old son Stanford launch Levees.org to teach America why the levees broke.
Learn more → The record
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Jan 212006
Levees.org's kickoff rally
At the Corps' New Orleans District headquarters: “Metro New Orleans was wiped out by a federal project done wrong.”
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June 2006
ILIT report
The first independent investigation finds many engineering errors — and wrongly blames the Orleans Levee Board in part. On June 1, the Corps' commander calls the system “a system in name only.”
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2006
Levee boards consolidated
Louisiana voters approve regional flood protection authorities with expert members — the first in the nation.
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2007
Team Louisiana, ASCE report, and national reform
Team Louisiana and the ASCE External Review Panel publish. Congress passes the National Levee Safety Act and Corps reform in the Water Resources Development Act.
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Jan 2008
Judge Duval: the Corps is responsible
A federal judge places responsibility for the 17th Street and London Avenue floodwall failures on the Army Corps — but the 1928 law makes it immune.
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March 2008
The Decision-Making Chronology
The federal government's own 333-page history reveals the botched E-99 study and the Corps' choice of higher walls for the 17th Street Canal.
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Dec 2008
The Corps' online campaign exposed
Sandy Rosenthal traces anonymous attacks on Levees.org and other Corps critics to Army Corps computers.
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2009
IPET final report; the MR-GO ruling
The Corps' own investigation admits the system did not perform as designed. In November, Judge Duval holds the Corps liable for MR-GO flooding. Levees.org finds 55% of Americans live in counties with levees.
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2010–2015
Plaques at the breach sites
Levees.org installs Louisiana State Historic Plaques at the 17th Street Canal (2010), London Avenue Canal (2011) and Industrial Canal (2015) breach sites.
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2012
The commander's admission
Lt. Gen. Carl Strock admits he had no documentation for his claim that local officials shared the blame. An appeals court reverses the MR-GO ruling.
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2015
The retraction
In Water Policy, the first investigation's lead authors retract their conclusion blaming the levee board. The New York Times runs it on the front page. The Levee Exhibit Hall & Rain Garden opens.
Learn more → Since then
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2017
HB266 becomes law
Levees.org's members help pass term limits for the flood authority nominating committee, 37–0 and 97–0.
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2019
The Flooded House Museum opens
A life-sized diorama at the London Avenue Canal breach shows what returning homeowners found.
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2020
Words Whispered in Water; 62% of Americans
Sandy Rosenthal's book is published. New FEMA data shows 62% of Americans live in counties protected by levees.
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2022
The AP changes its style guide
The Associated Press tells reporters worldwide that levee failures played a major role in the devastation in New Orleans. The national levee safety program finally launches.
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2023
Engineering Failures Education
Levees.org launches a campaign to require every U.S. engineering student to learn about engineering failures.
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2025
Twenty years
The 20th anniversary of the levee breaches. The anniversary edition of Words Whispered in Water is published.
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