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January 26, 2007 Vol. 77,
no. 3S
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| HANDS-ON: CEE
grad student Dan Tran (second from left) and senior Lauren
Huey (third from left) smooth the ground for a playground in
Slidell, Louisiana.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DAN TRAN
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CEE students travel to New Orleans to help rebuild devastated areas
After seeing the footage on TV and writing about the
devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, two Cal engineers still found
the real New Orleans startling. “What got to me was how widespread
[the destruction] was and still is,” says CEE senior Lauren Huey. “It
was hard to grasp what actually happened,” adds master’s
student Dan Tran.
The two students spent five days over their winter break touring the
area and helping rebuild neighboring Slidell, Louisiana, after earning
their trip by winning an essay contest on the engineering failures
and lessons learned from the 2005 storm. The contest and trip were
sponsored by the global environmental engineering firm, MWH.
“Dan and Lauren both wrote exceptional essays describing the lack of levee
maintenance, outdated designs, lack of funds and political decision-making that
all adversely affected the New Orleans levees,” said MWH spokeswoman Jennifer
Gelmini.
In her winning essay, for example, Huey wrote, “Had the levees been constructed
with higher quality fill such as compacted clay that was not as prone to erosion
[as the local dredge spoils used], they would have inevitably suffered some damage,
but it would not have been nearly as catastrophic as the destruction that did
occur.”
Huey gleaned many of her conclusions from CEE professors Bob Bea and Ray Seed’s
700-plus-page report on the levee failures released to the public last spring.
The Bea and Seed research team, sponsored by the National Science Foundation
and CITRIS, led an independent investigation of the levee systems. But for Huey
and Tran, who weren’t involved in the investigations, the contest offered
the means to help a Gulf Coast community and see engineering lessons firsthand. “It’s
always good to get out of the classroom and get beyond the numbers,” says
Tran. “I wanted to get involved in the ethical and human side of engineering
and gain perspective on my own life.”
Both found their short time in the New Orleans region unforgettable. For three
days, along with five MWH employees, they helped the City of Slidell’s
Parks and Recreation Department reconstruct a playground. After a bulldozer cleared
the ground, the engineers worked with other volunteers to assemble playground
equipment. While they worked, they heard stories of escape and survival from
local residents and marveled at their resiliency. “For some people, everything
they had was gone, but they were surprisingly upbeat,” Tran says.
The students also got to see the levee breaks, accompanied by MWH employees.
The sight was sobering and reminded them that the failures weren’t just
technical but also political and very human. As they drove around the city, they
noticed FEMA trailers still occupied months after the storm and abandoned houses
spray-painted with body count tallies.
“I definitely gained a perspective and an appreciation for what I have
and what I can offer the community,” says Tran. “We can’t understand
the full loss, but we can work to prevent events like this in the future.”
For more information about MWH, go to www.mwhglobal.com.
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