ATLANTA — Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, a researcher at Georgia Tech has developed a simulator to understand the failures of the levees that led to widespread flooding.
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Dr. Hermann Fritz, a professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, developed a levee simulator to help students understand the failures that occurred during Hurricane Katrina.
“There were a variety of failures that led to making Katrina a mega disaster,” said Dr. Hermann Fritz, who witnessed the levee failures firsthand.
The simulator allows users to control water flow, demonstrating how levee failures can lead to neighborhood flooding. Fritz hopes this tool will enhance the understanding of engineering students regarding the complexities of levee systems.
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During Hurricane Katrina, 80% of New Orleans was submerged, marking one of the deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history.
Fritz’s simulator aims to shed light on the engineering failures that contributed to this disaster.
“If the levee doesn’t collapse and it allows for continuous overflow, what happens then is the neighborhood would start to flood,” Fritz told Channel 2’s Lori Wilson.
Since Katrina, improvements have been made to levee strength and warning systems, but Fritz emphasizes that more work is needed to protect coastal areas.
“Hurricane Katrina was a national disaster. A natural disaster on a scale that we hadn’t seen,” Fritz said.
He hopes that future innovations might come from Georgia Tech students.
With advancements in technology and engineering education, tools like Fritz’s simulator could play a crucial role in preventing future disasters and improving levee systems.
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