by Mark Schaaf
Daily Lobo
University of New Orleans professor Ron Hagelman III has not been in his office since evacuating the city a few days before Hurricane Katrina pummeled the Gulf Coast.
Hagelman lectured to a full auditorium Friday in the Manufacturing Training and Technology Center building and focused on how New Orleans came to be so vulnerable to the massive flooding after Katrina in August.
Hagelman said there has been discussion for the past 25 years on what would happen to New Orleans in the worst-case scenario.
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Hagelman went over the history of the city, which was colonized by the French because of its location on the Atlantic seaboard, as well as its proximity to the Mississippi River, Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf of Mexico.
The area is no stranger to tragedies, Hagelman said. In 1897, residents experienced a terrible epidemic with yellow fever, which was caused by mosquitoes living in the water, Hagelman said.
"You didn't live in New Orleans and not have a family member or friend or business associate die," Hagelman said. "It galvanized the community."
Hagelman said it also led to the building of an infrastructure to combat flooding, because at the time, water was seen as the cause of yellow fever.
That infrastructure included the building of the much-revered pumping stations, which Hagelman said he still marvels at.
"You take your hat off when you drive by," he said.
Hagelman also discussed Hurricane Betsy in 1965 and the 1927 flood. Both events were turning points in policy thinking and led to the infrastructure that was in place when Hurricane Katrina hit, he said.
Hagelman said Katrina could have caused a lot more destruction. A difference of about 100 miles in the storm's path saved the city from further destruction, he said.
Hagelman closed the presentation by dismissing President Bush's claim that no one could have anticipated the break in the levees.
"Everyone in the city knew it was going to happen," Hagelman said, pointing to various studies and a computer model which predicted exactly what Katrina would do a few years before it made landfall.
Audience member David Sherman said he was disappointed because the lecture deviated from the original topic.
"I thought that it was informative on a scientific level, but I think the audience came to hear more about Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans and the human and environmental impact," he said.
UNM junior Andrew Skelton, a geography student, said he enjoyed the lecture despite the change of pace.
"I thought it was pretty good for the most part," he said. "He made a lot of very interesting points about the history and the development of the city."
