Clough serves as hurricane protection committee chair

Institute President Wayne Clough was recently appointed chair of the National Academies/National Research Committee on New Orleans Regional Hurricane Protection Projects. The committee, which reports to the Secretary of Defense, will oversee studies on the levee failures that occurred when Hurricane Katrina devastated the city last fall and review proposals for rebuilding New Orleans’ flood protection systems.

“This is the largest engineering project of our generation, and it has to be completed in the shortest period of time,” Clough said, whose first job when he graduated Georgia Tech was as a civil engineer working on flood protection issues in the Mississippi River Basin. “It’s an honor to be asked to be a part of it.”

Clough said this is one of the few times when engineering and professional expertise coincide with a national imperative. “[New Orleans] is a great city, an icon for the country and it must be rebuilt. The [Hurricane Katrina disaster] continues to be a heartbreaking situation for thousands of people because they can’t go home, and it’s important for people…to step up and do something.” Clough said the fact that he has family in New Orleans brings the importance of rebuilding to him on a very personal level as well.

Clough’s appointment to committee chair also represents a continuation of Tech’s commitment to helping in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Tech was active in relief efforts last year by offering aid to hurricane evacuees, opening its doors to displaced students and initiating the largest fundraising campaign in campus history. “I hope to engage more people at Tech in [current] efforts,” Clough said. Because of the technical and engineering aspects of the committee’s work, Clough said it was an “opportunity to really do something that coincides with what we do as an institution…and a terrific opportunity for [Tech] students to learn.”

According to Clough, the committee will first hold hearings in New Orleans in January and then begin work in earnest when information from the investigation teams comes in. Meanwhile, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will continue its ongoing work to repair damaged areas of the levees because of the urgency of the approaching hurricane season. Work will also begin to implement levee improvements during the summer that will enhance the level of protection the levees provide over time. “If the levee system is to be taken to a category five hurricane level, it will take innovative approaches and require an extended period of time to accomplish,” Clough said.

The committee will address both engineering and policy issues and hopes to have definitive results by June 1, 2006, the official start of the next hurricane season.

“It’s important to make the statement that people can look to Tech for leadership on issues of this kind,” Clough said. “As president, I hope to represent Georgia Tech and its commitment to work on these issues until they are resolved.”