NPR Interview: Charles Groat discusses impact of Hurricane Katrina

August 30 2005

As residents of New Orleans woke up to the consequences of Hurricane Katrina, Dr. Charles G. Groat, director of the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy at the Jackson School of Geosciences, discussed some of the science and public policy issues related to Katrina on the Diane Rehm Show, a nationally-syndicated National Public Radio program out of Washington, D.C.

An audio stream of the interview is available from the Diane Rehm Show's Web site:

• Hurricane Katrina
  (The Diane Rehm Show, Aug. 30, 2005)
  Groat enters the interview at 01:47. A transcript of his major comments follows.

Excerpts from Groat's comments

(04:04) Rehm: Professor Groat, how do you compare New Orleans to Venice, Italy?

Groat: Well, I think they both face problems with sea level rising that is gradually taking place and with subsidence, the sinking of the land and the vulnerability that brings to buildings and highways and all of the infrastructure. They both face problems ... with water getting in these low-lying areas and getting all of that water out. Particularly if the levies are overtopped with the storm, or with severe flooding, then both of those cities have very serious physical problems with the water accumulation.

(05:44) Rehm: So, what do you see as the long-term prospects?

Groat: Well, I think Diane that the Corps of Engineers, the university partners that are providing science, the USGS that's providing science, all of the local agencies are more than willing to invest in what is necessary to increase the natural barriers to hurricane impacts, the surges and the floods. The question is whether that will and that interest will be met by the funding that's necessary, which more than anything else will be dependent on the federal government and its receptivity to the needs. I would suspect that this storm and its impact on New Orleans would certainly increase the attention paid to that. Whether it will increase the dollar flows into the restoration programs has yet to be determined.

(06:27) Rehm: And what about Texas, Professor Groat, what about the damage to oil production facilities there?

Groat: Well, the Minerals Management Service has reported that 83 percent of the oil production and a large, comparable percent of the natural gas production has been shut down since Friday, so we've had a lot of loss of production, particularly on the Louisiana shelf, with not as much, but some, on the Texas shelf. The question will be how long will that endure. That's something that does normally happen when storms approach.

But of greater concern at least in the local press here is the refinery capacity. Up to 10 percent was shut down in anticipation of the storm. We don't know yet how much damage there was to refineries. And refinery capacity is perhaps the most significant driving force, the lack of it, in driving up gasoline prices and in driving up home heating oil prices for the winter. So there's going to be a lot of attention paid in Texas and Louisiana to the impact on the oil and gas structures off shore, but just as importantly to the impact on refining capacity. And I think it's just too early to tell how significant that was or how long that impact will last.

(08:37) Rehm: Professor Groat if there were one thing that you could do to prevent this kind of storm devastation in the future, as far as New Orleans especially is concerned, what would that be?

Groat: Diane, I think the sad part of the story is that a storm of this magnitude, regardless of what humans do, is going to have this level of devastation, because you can't mitigate those kinds of impacts. I think New Orleans' greatest hope for the future would be being sure that its ability to get the people out of harm's way is as strong as it can be because we have a good example here of what that harm is going to be like. They ought to learn from that how to better anticipate and prepare. They did a marvelous job, the governor, the state, the mayor and other officials in doing what they needed to do and we ought to give them a lot of credit for that. But I think we'll also learn that there is more that we can do, and the science community and the preparedness community and the local agencies need to work together to make sure that that's done as effectively and efficiently as possible

For more information contact J.B. Bird at the Jackson School, jbird@jsg.utexas.edu, 512-232-9623.