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Group study exchange 2008The Netherlands 1610 to USA, Louisiana/Mississippi 6840

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Preface

Since 1965 the Rotary International - Group Study Exchange (GSE) programis a unique cultural and vocational exchange opportunity for young people intheir initial years of professional life. Rotary districts in different countries arepaired to send and receive GSE teams of four to six non-Rotarian membersand one Rotarian team leader.

The GSE teams follow an extensive program with

Vocational visits to exchange knowledge and information about theindividual professions of the members.

Cultural experiences to exchange cultural habits.

Fellowship opportunities to really live and communicate in Rotarianhost families during the program.

Rotarian involvement to participate in this international service toprovide young professionals a different perspective of their vocationin another country and culture.

This report will give you an impression of the experiences of the GSE-team2008 from the Netherlands, RI District 1610 to RI District 6840(Louisiana/Mississippi) in the U.S.A.

For both districts this was the first Group Study Exchange with a theme. Thetheme was “Water Protection”. All team members have jobs with affinity tothis theme.

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Introduction by the team leader

This is the report of the Group Study Exchangeteam, RI District 1610, TheNetherlands to RI District 6840 (Louisiana/Mississippi) New Orleans, in theU.S.A. from 5 April till 5 May, 2008.

The GSE preparation activities lasted from March to October 2007, andstarted with advertising in daily and weekly newspapers inviting young peopleto apply for this exchange program. Eleven men and women sent a letter tothe Selection Committee. Eight of them were invited for an interview, afterwhich the Committee selected three women and two men to compose theteam. The team leader was chosen from a few candidates.

Between December 2007 and the beginning of March 2008 the team met fivetimes to get to know each other, prepare for the American adventure and torehearse the presentations. The team members’ professions formed thesubject of the presentations:

Saskia Vuurens, Hydrologist Royal HaskoningWerner Halter, Civil Engineer FugroNadine Slootjes, Physical Geographer HKV ConsultantsSaskia van Vuren, Civil Engineer HKV ConsultantsEvert Uelman, Civil Engineer Van Oord

The First week the team was also accompanied by Wybren Epema, aRotarian and former director of a Dutch Water board.During our stay we visited a number of Rotary Clubs and gave severalpresentations. As a team leader, I started our presentation with informationabout Rotary in RI District 1610 and our typically Dutch culture and habits.The team gave a general presentation about water protection in theNetherland, followed by individual vocational presentations. The general andthe individual presentations made a deep impression

To raise a corner of the veil, I can tell you that we especially built bridges offriendship. We had a wonderful time and an unbelievable experience. It was afantastic professional team no illnesses and no problems at all.

For further details about our experience, I would like to invite you to read thefollowing chapters of this report.We would like to thank all the people we met in New Orleans, Ponchatoula,Hammond, Vicksburg, Franklinton, Ocean Springs, Slidell and St.CharlesParish. We truly appreciated the International Organization in the UnitedStates and in The Netherlands for giving us this opportunity.

A special word of thanks goes out to:The District Governors:

USA: Milton WheelerThe Netherlands: Chris Sas

The GSE Chairmen:USA: Carlton F. DufrechouThe Netherlands: Hans Brader

Furthermore, we would like to thank all the American and Dutch sponsorclubs in Louisiana/Mississippi, the host families and coordinators of theprogram:

Sharron Newton, Mr. Subhash Kulkarni, Bobby & Liz McDaniel, JarrodGoudeau, Mike and Betty Gill, Ernie & Pat Pinson, Jerry & Carolyn Fortino,Al Tomsic, Bob Perkins,Jeannine Granier, PattyMonjou.

We will carry all of you in ourhearts, and we will never forgetthis wonderful experience.

Arie Koster, Team leader of theDutch GSE team 2008.

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The team

Arie KosterTeamleader GSE

Ariekoster@unitedtelecom.beI am 70 years old en married to Anny. We have2 children, 5 wonderful grandchildren and 1great grandchild. Since 1980 I am an activemember of the Rotary-Club Oosterhout. Duringthis time, I have served my club as President,and in 1994/95, I served the District 1610 asGovernor. In previous years, I was member ofthe Dutch Jaycees of which I was also NationalPresident.

I retired in 2003 from my position as directorand owner of a paint contracting company. Inthe same period I have served the NationalEducation Organisation for painters anddecorators for 20 years. This is a nationalinstitute where young people are trained to puttheir knowledge into practice.

We very much appreciate the kind welcome thatyou have prepared for us. We all thank thepeople, members and host families in Rotary forthe time and energy they have put into servingall of us.

Evert UelmanCivil Engineer

EFU@VanOord.comI am graduated in Civil Engineering at the DelftUniversity of Technology in the direction ofHydraulic Engineering. In 2006 I started mycareer at Van Oord. Van Oord is a dredging andmarine contractor. Within Van Oord, I amworking for the engineering department as acoastal engineer. This department is responsiblefor the design of maritime structures like sandreclamations, islands, harbors, levees andbreakwaters. For my job I have to travel allaround the world, sometimes for longer periods.

The main reason to participate on this exchangeprogram is that I like everything that has to dowith hydraulic engineering. Also I like to seeNew Orleans which is said to be a very nice andlively city. In my time off I am an enthusiasticyacht racer (bowmen) and I like to play fieldhockey.

Nadine SlootjesPhysical Geographer

Nadine.Slootjes@HKV.nlAfter finishing my Master thesis in PhysicalGeography at Utrecht University, my first jobwas at the Ministry of Transport, Public Worksand Water Management. I worked there as anadvisor in water management. Since 2006 I workas a senior consultant at HKV Consultants, anindependent research and consultancy firm. Myexpertise is flood risk management, whichincludes computation of failure probabilities ofthe flood defences, flood simulations, damageassessments and flood mitigation measures.

My motivation to join this exchange program isto learn from the social, cultural and economicimpact of a flooding and the way the recovery ofa flooded area proceeds. But besides theprofessional interest, I wish to learn more aboutthe American cultural and the beautiful nature ofLouisiana and Mississippi! The more, because Iam an enthusiastic basketball player, a passionatehiker and a pianist that likes jazz.

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Saskia van VurenCivil Engineer

Saskia.van.Vuren@HKV.nlI finished my studie in Civil Engineering andManagement at Twente University in 2000. Icontinued a PhD research project on riskassessment in river engineering at DelftUniversity of Technology. In 2005, I joinedWL|Delft Hydraulics in the position ofresearcher & advisor. In this position I wasinvolved in projects on coastal and riverengineering, and risk and uncertainty analysis. In2008, I started a new job at HKV consultants assenior consultant river engineering & riskmanagement. The main focus of my newfunction is on disaster management, risk &safety and water systems.

Projects related to flood protection were mainlyapproached from a statistical and technical pointof view. The study tour to New Orleans givesthe opportunity to elaborate on the societalaspects of disasters. The flood disaster showshow a society can be disrupted when it is hit bysuch an extreme event. I am interested in thelessons that can be learnt from the flood disasterin New Orleans: from pro-action & preventionto after-care. It would be good to draw parallelswith other flood sensitive regions in the world.

Werner HalterCivil Engineer

W.Halter@Fugro.nlI am graduated in Civil Engineering at the DelftUniversity of Technology. Since 1999 I haveworked for Fugro, an inter-national engineeringconsulting company. My main activities aretesting, designing and constructing of levees.Besides this, I also execute forensic levee failureinvestigations and geotechnical effect studies.

My main motivation for this exchange project isbased on my affection with low areas all aroundthe world. During my youth, I lived in the lowestarea of The Netherlands, at an elevation of 22feet below sea level. The vulnerable Dutch deltaregion has many similarities with the MississippiRiver Delta. Of course I am interested in therich culture of South Louisiana and Mississippitoo. In my spare time I enjoy outdoor activitieslike running, hiking and cycling.

Saskia VuurensHydrologist

S.Vuurens@Royalhaskoning.comIn 2004 I am graduated in Hydrology and Watermanagement at Wageningen University. From2004 – 2007 I worked for ‘HetHoogheemraadschap van Delfland’, which is awater board operating in the area around Delftand The Hague. In November 2007 I started anew job as a consultant at Royal Haskoning.Royal Haskoning is a consultancy firm forengineers and architects, with 3600 employeesworldwide (and operating in New Orleans). Themain question of my work is ‘how to control thewater level in the Dutch densely populated andindustrialized “polders” (low-lying areas belowsee level enclosed by embankments) during dryperiods and periods with heavy rain?’.

My motivation to join the exchange program isto learn about the water level control in andaround New Orleans, and how the waterauthorities organize their tasks. Besides that, Iwould like to see a lot of the environment andvisit cultural activities in the city! I am playingthe clarinet and enjoy jazz music. In theweekends you’ll find me (ice) skating, indoor oroutdoor.

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Short impression of Katrina’s aftermath

10, During Katrina1, Directly after Katrina

10, Now

1, Now

1, Now4, Now

4, Now

4, Short after Katrina

1, Short after Katrina

4, Directly after Katrina

Our route on the map

1 New Orleans2 Hammond3 McComb4 New Orleans5 Franklinton6 Ocean springs7 Slidell8 St. Charles Parish

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Saturday, April 5 - Amsterdam /Houston

The GSE journey started at AmsterdamSchiphol Airport. We met here at 7.00 am. Aftera cup of coffee we took our plane to Houston.Because of head wind we arrived in Houstonhalf an hour too late. After leaving our plane wehad to wait about two hours in a queue at theImmigration Service. We regrouped at theluggage room, but Evert didn’t show up. After awhile he called that he was kept in one of theinspection rooms for an interview. In spite ofthe brave efforts of Arie to negotiate with theimmigration officers, it took two hours torelease Evert. For this purpose our sportiveteam leader Arie had to run up an escalator inreverse direction a couple of times. At the endwe missed our connecting flight to NewOrleans. After six hours of waiting Saskia vanVuren and Ariemanaged to getanother plane toNew Orleans, theothers spent thenight in theWyndham Hotelin Houston.

Sunday, April 6 – Houston/ NewOrleans

Most of us woke up in Houston. While watchingout our hotel window we had our first daylightimpressions of America. As far as we could seewe saw a huge parking lot, huge cars andwinding interstate roads. We had breakfasttogether, then Evert and Wybren went to theairport. Saskia Vuurens, Nadine and Wernerwere able to spend all day in the Houstonregion. Together with Maarten, a friend ofWerner living in Houston, they made a sightseeing driving tour. While driving in EastHouston they were planning to stop somewherefor a coffee. But before reaching the coffeeshop, they had a small car accident with a localguy in a trailer park. Without having coffee theydrove to Galveston for a fine lunch break at thebeach. In Galveston they saw houses on stiltsand a huge cruise ship. Later in the afternoonthey visited the skyscrapers in downtownHouston. Saskia and Werner were the last twopeople that reached New Orleans after midnight.The others had an evening welcome party at theHouse of Broel Victorian Mansion and DollMuseum.

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Monday, April 7 – New Orleans

We gathered at the office of the LakePonchartrain Basin Foundation (LPBF) at theLakeway building where we had a spectacularview on the lake and the causeway. John Lopez,Director Coastal Sustainability Program LPBF,gave us an overview of Coastal Louisiana. JohnLopez told us that risk reduction is moreimportant than flood protection. In his opinionthe “multiple lines of defense strategy” is theappropriate way to reduce risks. He told usabout the five stages in history which affectedthe water system: 1. levees & ridges 2. thehuman interference on the Mississippi river 3.logging 4. dredging & armoring 5. waterpollution. At lunch we had our first po’boy atR&O’s along Lake Ponchartrain. We wereshown around along a pumping station, the 17th

Street Canal and a small meadow restorationproject at the lake shore. In the evening we haddifferent activities with our host families. SaskiaVuurens and Nadine had a party. Evert attendeda school fund raising. Saskia van Vuren andWerner ate alligator meat and beignets in theFrench Quarter and drunk local beer and coffee.

Tuesday, April 8 – New Orleans

In the morning we started with a guided tour atthe Historic New Orleans Collection. Thismuseum is situated in the French Quarter. Itoffered a fascinating lesson of the history ofNew Orleans. In the tour special emphasis wasmade on the history of water protection in NewOrleans. The museum dependence had a veryspectacular wooden duck collection. We enjoyedthe amazing New Orleans panorama from theroof of Hotel Royal. After strolling around onJackson Square we had lunch at the GumboShop. In the afternoon we gathered at theLPBF-office for a meeting with Al Naomi of theUS Army Corps of Engineers. He told us aboutthe way New Orleans is protected againstflooding and how the safety can be increased bystructural, non-structural and coastal measures.We discussed several flood protection relatedtopics like engineering requirements,environmental issues, politics, risk managementand economics. In the evening everyone had hisown program. Saskia van Vuren and Wernerwent with their host family to the locks in theHarvey Canal, which looks like the DutchMaeslantkering Storm Surge Barrier, and hadfried seafood in a nice small restaurant inBarataria

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Wednesday, April 9 – New Orleans

We started our official program at LoyolaUniversity, but some people started the morningearlier with a Rotary club breakfast meeting or acompany visit. We spoke with Professor BobThomas, Chair in EnvironmentalCommunication. He is both a wetland specialistand a frog specialist. We only discussed the firsttopic. He explained the New Orleans floodingduring Katrina in a chronological way and withgreat detail. We also discussed how the floodsafety can be increased and talked about thesocial aspects which are involved with this. Bystreetcar we reached Mother’s at Poydras Streetwhere we had a rich lunch. Then Nancy Gillshowed us all around in her car. We drove to theLower Ninth Ward where we could see thedevastating effects of Katrina. We visited one ofthe levee breach locationsand saw the new floodwall. At the end of theafternoon we had cheeseand wine at Patty Monju’splace along St. CharlesAvenue. She took us tothe “Wednesday at thesquare” festival atLafayette Square. In theevening we had a nicetime at the Maple Leaf Barand the Jacques-Imo Café.

Thursday, April 10 – Hammond

This morning we left at 10:30 AM to theHammond area. At 12:00 o’clock we arrived atthe Hammond club for our first official Rotarymeeting. The club was busy with the lastattempts to make the Strawberry festival to a bigsuccess. Special guests on this meeting were thestrawberry king and queen. The Strawberryfestival is a large festival held on a yearly basis tocelebrate the harvest of the strawberries.Although there was no time available to give ourpresentation, they gave us the opportunity tobriefly introduce ourselves and exchange

banners. Given the number ofquestions from the audience, itbecame apparent that they werevery interested in our flooddefense system. When mentioningthat our safety level variesbetween ones in 1,250 year up toones in 10,000 years, the audiencereacted surprised.

Although it was not scheduled, inthe afternoon Brian Depaula tookus for an excellent boat trip in the

wetlands. Along the Amite River to lakeMaurepas. The weather was good. We enjoyedthe boot trip through the beautiful environmentand saw above all our first alligator! In theevening we had a crawfish dinner with somemembers of the Hammond Rotary club

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Friday, April 11 – Hammond

The topic of the day was ‘coastal forest andbeneficial use of waste water effluent to restorethe marshes and degraded swamps into healthyswamps’. The Turtle Cove Research Stationhosted us.

The day started with a presentation apresentation from Gary Schaffer and RobertMoreau about the immense deterioration of thewetlands. Thisdeterioration wasinduced by a number ofcauses, such as theconstruction of the leveesystem along theMississippi, the oil & gasdevelopment, the canalsystem for logging andthe sea level rise. These causes yielded asignificant reduction of sediment supply into thewetlands and an increased salt water intrusion inthe wetland. Salt water wetlands are more fragilethan fresh water systems. Consequently, severeerosion, subsidence, loss of vegetation anddeforestation (cypress, maple-trees and oaks)took place. This introduced the degradation ofswamps into marshes, and so the deteriorationof the wetlands. Two measures were proposedto preserve and restore the wetlands: 1) riverdiversions in the Mississippi River to divert freshand sediment rich water into the wetlands, and

2) releasing treated water of a sewer system tothe wetlands in combination with plantingcypress trees. The aim of the measures is toachieve a more healthy swamp by means of anincrease in sediment supply, a set back of the saltwedge and an increase of the cypress vegetation.After the theoretical part, we visit a site wherethe fresh sewer water effluent was released in thewetlands and part of the cypress forest wasrestored by planting new young trees.

At lunch fresh fried catfish was served with saladand French fries. In the afternoon the socio-economic benefits of the coastal wetlands wereaddressed. The visit ended with a nice boat tripthrough the marshes to Lake Ponchartain.

Darryl Smith was our host for the evening andchose a very nice restaurant inHammond to have dinner. The foodand drinks were excellent! He offeredus a trip with his private airplane jet forthe next morning. How lucky could webe!

Saturday, April 12 – Hammond

The next morning Darryl picked us up early forthe airplane trip. Unfortunately, not all of uscould join, because of the limited places in theairplane. The boys gave their seats away (thanksboys!), so we girls could join Darryl on this verybeautiful flight. His private pilot did a very goodjob. He showed us the marshes and swamps, theriver diversion Bonnet Carré spillway and theMississippi Gulf coasts with the barrier islands.

In the meanwhile the boysvisited the PontchatoulaStrawberry festival. Thatappeared to be a realAmerican party with lots offood and nice music.

In the afternoon Tommy,the Darryl’s brother, drove us to the riverdiversion Bonnet Carré spillway that is openedsince the 11th of April to relieve high water onthe Mississippi River to Lake Ponchartrain. Fordinner we ordered some pizzas and went early tobed early. It was an excellent day.

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Sunday, April 13 – Mc Comb

Today we continued our trip to Mc Comb. Inthe morning part of the GSE team did a runningon the Hammond Campus. Bobby McDanieland his wife Liz drove us from Hammond to McComb, but not before visiting a good ice-creamsalon in Hammond! We enjoyed a warmwelcome by all our host families in Mc Comb.The atmosphere was great. Six families were allwaiting with their children to bring us to theirhomes. We had the afternoon and evening off toenjoy free time with the family. Nadine for

example played basketball with the children ofthe host family and Werner went with his hostto the local “Buddy’s” bar. We enjoyed therelaxing time after the first busy week.

Monday, April 14 – Mc Comb

Bobby McDaniel was our guide of the next fewdays, and he did great job: what ‘n organizer! Inthe morning he took us on a tour to show thelocal industry and projects, among which a socialhousing project, a chicken farm, a timberindustry, a dairy farm, the county prison and thecourt office.

In the meanwhile, he informed us about theemergency preparedness and response toHurricane Katrina. An employee of the localCivil Defense Office of Mc Comb gave a shortoverview of the emergency response directlyafter Katrina. From this office, policemen,firemen and soldiers of the Army Corps ofEngineers cooperate to coordinate the firstemergency activities. Restoring electricity andclearing the roads from trees and trash appearedto be essential activities in the first weeks. Sincemany evacuees from the southern parts ofMississippi and Louisiana found shelter in McComb, the supply of food and water was animportant task. Approximately 8000 people werehosted in shelters, tents and homes in McComb. Water, ice and Meals Ready to Eat(MRE’s) were provided for free to feed theevacuees. Along with that all adults received acredit card with $200 as a form of emergencymoney to pay their first expenses. Bobbyshowed us the distribution center where thedaily food supplies and rescue materials were

provided. For the emergency responseapproximately 1200 extra persons came overfrom elsewhere in the United States to give theCivil Defense Office assistance.

In addition to the Civil Defense Office, theactivities of churches, schools, the Red Cross,local civil organizations, such as the Rotary andthe Lions, and local initiatives turned out to beessential and valuable. One of our hosts Pat

Brumfield (owner of a number of gasolinestations) coordinated the distribution of gasolineto rescue teams, emergency organizations(MEMA), the police and fire department,ambulances, telephone companies andnewspapers. Since there was no electricity,generators were provided by the local electricityprovider Entergy. The local energy providerjoined the daily meetings organized by the majorto coordinate the emergency response.

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Communication, pro-action and preparedemergency plans turn out to be crucial successfactors. With respect to the former, the dailynews broadcasted at the local radio stationappeared to be very valuable. It was veryinteresting to listen to various personal stories ofthe people of Mc Comb.

After lunch we continued our tour and went toVicksburg for an overnight stay. Bobby managedto organize halfway a visit to the MississippiEmergency Management Agency (MEMA).Although MEMA was occupied withpreparations for the high water and floodsituation of the Mississippi in the surroundingarea of Vicksburg, they prepared a nicepresentation and excursion through theirEmergency Operation Centre. After Katrina thesize of the organization was doubled to 120employees. During emergency situations theystay in close contact with the local Civil Defense

Offices, the counties, the Salvation Army andthe Red Cross in the state Mississippi. Theirmain task is to assist the local community and toinvestigate and coordinate the needs withrespect to resources (viz. (?) man, equipment,food, water etc.) during disasters. Moreover,they stay in contact with the federal government.During Hurricane Katrina, the communicationand coordination between the state and federalgovernment was poor, because of the lack oftrust of the federal government in the needs thestate applied for. The communication andcoordination between the state and local defenseoffices and counties were a success factor,mainly due to the emergency exercises andperiodic incidental management training. After avisit to the Emergency Operation Center withlarge information screens and computers for theEmergency Service and Human Service Branch,we headed on to Vicksburg.

Werner and Arie did not visit MEMA. Theyvisited a big dam in a State Park and the City ofNatchez.

In Vicksburg we enjoyed anexcursion to the Coca Colafactory, where the first Coca Colawas bottled. We stayed overnightat a very nice Mansion, CedarCrove. The dinner was excellent.What a busy day!

Tuesday, April 15 – Mc Comb

Early in the morning Nadine and Saskia wentjogging in the Vicksburg National Military Park.The battlefield with all the memorials wasimpressive.

After breakfast, we visited the U.S. ArmyEngineer Research and Development Centre.The focus of the morning was on the researchproject Interagency Performance EvaluationTaskforce (IPET). The major aim of thisresearch was to investigate the technicalexplanation of the flood damage induced byhurricane Katrina. Three presentationsaddressed different items related to flooddamage. Jane Smith focussed on the regionalhydrodynamics of Hurricane Katrina. Sheindicated how the storm surge and waveconditions during Katrina related to designconditions. Bill Seabergh showed and explainedthe physical scale model of the 17th Canal Streetin New Orleans. The physical scale model tests

were performedto investigate thewave and stormsurge attack onthe levees alongthe 17th CanalStreet. In thatway they try toexplain thereason of the

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large breach in the levees that induced theinundation of the Parrish Orleans. The lastpresentation of Joe Koester of the CentrifugeResearch Centre focussed on the failuremechanism of the levee of the 17th Canal Street.

In the afternoon Commander of the DistrictColonel Michael Wehr presented a shortoverview of the tasks and history of flooding inthe Vicksburg District. Subsequently, JeffArtman took us on a nice field visit along theflood defence system in the Vicksburg District.The high water levels of the Mississippi wereamazing. In Vicksburg some emergencymeasures were taken to avoid flooding of thecity.

In the evening we returned rather tired to ourhost families in Mc Comb. It has been awonderful trip to Vickburg.

Wednesday, April 16 – Mc Comb

Our morning started with a visit at the localgovernment. We spoke with the mayor ofMagnolia, a small town near McComb. Heexplained us how the political system works on alocal, county, state and federal scale and how thepresidential election works. We also discussedsome differences between The Netherlands andthe United States, house prices, income, socialsecurity and taxes. The average income in theUnited States is lower than in the Netherlands,but the taxes and the prices of the houses arealso lower. Social security differs from ourcountry in a way that a basic health insurance isnot required and when people retire, they oftenhave to take an extra job.Saskia van Vuren, who is specialized inemergency preparation plans also had theopportunity to speak with Richard Coghlan,commander of the emergency operation respondof McComb. He was also in charge duringKatrina.

The next stop before lunch was a visit to theMcComb Railroad Museum. The railroad playedan important role in the history of McComb.McComb was founded in 1872 after ColonelHenry Simpson McComb, president of the NewOrleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad,decided to move the railroad's maintenanceshops away from New Orleans, Louisiana,outside of the attractions of that city's saloons.The Railroad Museum showed us theimportance of the railroad to McComb. Outsidethe museum, there is a 200-ton steamlocomotive, one of the two largest steam enginesin the fleet. During our visit we were also'caught' in a news article for the local newspaper.

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For lunch we joined a meeting of the RotaryClub of McComb. It was the first time we gaveour presentation about the Netherlands.Everybody was very interested and we enjoyed ita lot! The afternoon we spend at the McCombCountry Club. We learned some gulf techniquesat the driving ranch and played a game at theputting green. Evert is actually a natural borngulf player!In the evening, we were invited for a club socialat Will and Gay Austin's home. They made afantastic dinner for us.

Thursday, April 17 – Mc Comb/ NewOrleans

In the morning we were guests in two local radioprograms. We spoke for example about our tripand what we have learned so far, but also aboutthe paintings of the Dutch painter Vermeer. Acouple of days in McComb made us alreadyfamous: on the radio and in the newspaper!

As new celebrities ofMcComb, we departed forNew Orleans. On our waywe stopped at the BonnetCarré spillway. At theterrain near the spillway,different organizations hadstands about wetlandprotection to educate 5th

grade school kids.Together with 6th gradekids they explained howimportant wetlands are forflood protection andbiodiversity. It is a goodconcept that kids learnfrom kids.

During our stay at thespillway, they openedanother 20 floodgates. Bythen, 110 floodgates intotal were opened. At the

district office of the USACE, we learned somefact about the Bonnet Carré Spillway. The Corpsopens the spillway to keep the volume of theMississippi River that flows to New Orleansfrom exceeding 1.25 million cubic feet persecond (cfs). The Bonnet Carré Structure has adesign capacity of 250,000 cfs. The controlstructure is a concrete weir that parallels theriver for a mile and a half. It consists of 350

gated bays, each holding 20timber 'needles', for a total of7,000 needles. When needlesare removed, river waterflows into the floodway andis conveyed nearly six milesbetween guide levees to thelake. Operation of thestructure is relatively simple.Two cranes, moving on trackon top of the structure, lifttimbers from their verticalposition in the weir and setthem aside. Bonnet Carréwas first opened during theflood of 1937; since then ithad operated seven othertimes.In the evening we made adinner cruise at theMississippi. The weather wasvery nice in the evening.

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Friday, April 18 – New Orleans

In the morning and the beginning of theafternoon, we stayed at the Lake PontchartrainFoundation where we spoke with Reda M.Bakeer, an engineer of Ardaman & Associates,Inc. He started his lecture about the history ofthe Mississippi delta and how the area of NewOrleans has been build by the river. He gaveinformation about the design of the levees,showed us his theory about the failure of thelevees near the Lower Ninth Ward and why a T-wall is better than an I-wall.

Laura from the Lake Pontchartrain Foundationwas so kind to bring us to LOEW'S hotel, wherethe Rotary Food Fest would be in the evening.We had some time off before it started and usedit to do some shopping in the River Walkshopping mall. We needed of course take anadvantage of the (for us good) dollar price. ;-)

In the evening, Rotary District 6840 organized aFood Fest.Every Rotaryclub madesomething toeat: crawfish,catfish, pasta,

strawberrydaiquiri, breadpudding, pie,

everything was marvelous! The Warren EastonMarching Band opened the Food Fest. Thisband was from a high school that was rebuiltwith money raised by Rotary. We talked to someof the children and found out that they wereespecially glad that they could return to the sameschool with the same friends. Though, 40%never returned because they left the city. By theway, the food that was left, Rotary brings to ahomeless people house.

Saterday, April 19 – New Orleans

Early rise! Breakfast at 7.30 AM at LOEW'Shotel. This breakfast was for people thatreceived a Paul Harris fellowship or werePresidents-elect, but we as a GSE team werealso invited. The plenary session started with apresentation of RELY. Even so, a 14-year-oldboy told us about his initiative to start to mowthe grass in the city parks. He still does thisevery Saturday morning, joined by a lot ofvolunteers. After these incredible stories, ourGSE team and the GSE team that visited TheNetherlands were presented and we gave ourpresentation about our Dutch flood defensesystem.

After a great lunch, we had some free time andwe visited the IMAX theatre where a movie wasplayed called 'Hurricane on the Bayou'. Thismovie was really impressive. It was shot in themidst of Katrina and made a musical journeywith four musicians as they sound the call torestore the vital wetlands of Louisiana.

In the evening, all the Rotary clubs and we wereinvited by the Rotary Governor Milton Wheelerfor the Governor’s Victory Banquet. During thisdinner, the awards for several clubs are handedout.After dinner, we visited the famous BourbonStreet and had fun listening to the music indifferent bars.

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Sunday and Monday, April 20/21 –Franklinton

The next morning, Mike and Betty Gill pickedus up for our two days of 'Rest and Relax' attheir home. Their house was situated next to alake and we had a lot of fun with their Jetski andtube! Also Arie enjoys it and rides the Jetski likea real king. We also celebrated Saskia's (Vuurens)birthday on Sunday.

We loved to visit a church with a black, swingingchoir. So, Mike and Betty took us to a blackBaptist church on Monday evening. Betty'semployee's brother is the priest in this church.We were personally welcomed and Bettyintroduced us to everyone in the church. Saskia(van Vuren) told the people in the church sheliked to sing, so she was invited to join the

choir!! We all experienced this visit as a veryspecial one.We would like to thank Mike, Betty and Kyle fortheir tremendous hospitality!

Thuesday April 22 – Stennis Space Centre /Ocean Springs

Thuesday Tuesday morning we left Mike andBetty Gill’s house and went to NASA’s John C.

Stennis Space Centre in HancockCounty, Mississippi. At noon wehad lunch with the Stennis SpaceCentre Rotary Club and gave ourpresentation. After lunch we hada tour at the visitors centre andvisited the site. Stennis SpaceCentre was established to test theengines for America’s firstjourneys to the moon. NowadaysStennis Space Centre tests all themain engines for the space shuttleand will test the engines for

NASA’s Constellation Program (the plan totreturn humans to the moon, with eventualtravels to Mars).

Nowadays, NASA’s satellites are used forhurricane research, to make the hurricanewarnings more accurate.After the tour the Ocean Springs Rotary Clubdrove us to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Alongthe coast we saw the devastating impact ofKatrina In Ocean Springs we visited the WalterAnderson Museum of Art in downtown OceanSprings. In the evening we had a great diner withthe Dutchman Jan Vos and some members ofthe Rotary Club of Ocean Springs

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Wednesday, April 23 – Ocean Springs

After breakfast we were picked up at our hostfamilies to go to the Hurricane Hunters at theKeesler Air Force Base, where Lt. Col. MarkStevens gave a presentation. The HurricaneHunters have aircrafts that fly into thehurricanes. The purpose is to directly measureand collect weather data in and around thehurricane. At lunchtime we gave ourpresentation for the Rotary Club of OceanSprings.

In the early afternoon there was time to speakwith mayor Connie Moran. Mayor Moranexplained how the city of Ocean Springsprepared for hurricane Katrina. And, wediscussed about the wind- and flood insurance inthe United States. We continued this discussionat the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory(University of Soutern Mississippi), with DrHawkens and other members of the staff. In theevening there was some time to relax and havedinner with our host families.

Thursday, April 24 – Slidell

It was early in the morning when we travelled toSlidell with our new host families. We took sometime to drop our luggage and get settled, beforewe went to the pianist Ronnie Kole’s residence.In his beautiful house with garden close to thebayou we had a great lunch. And last but notleast, Ronnie gave a private concert! It wasimpressive and an honour to be there! And withRonnie’s signed new CD ‘American Masters’ wecan listen to him as much a we like.

After the concert we made a little trip on thebayou with Sharron and her husband. In theafternoon and evening everybody had somespare time with their host families to relax. Laterthat evening we had a Cajun Feast of shrimp andcrawfish at the Baker residence in Lacombe

Friday April 25, – Slidell

In the morning we visited the National WeatherService (NWS) and Lower Mississippi RiverForecast Centre (LMRFC) in Slidell. MichaelKoziara gave (NWS) a presentation about thehurricane forecast, wind speed and surgemodeling. David Reed explained how theLMRFC predicts the water level in theMississippi (twice a day) with hydrologicalmodels.

The Rotary Clubs ‘Rotary of Slidell’ and ‘SlidellNorth Shore’ combined their weekly Rotarymeeting to listen to our lunch presentation. Dr.Gordon Boutwell was invited and gave aninteresting and clear presentation about the leveesystem failure in New Orleans. He served ontwo of the national teams that investigated thefailures of the levees.

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Saturday and Sunday, April 26 & 27 – Slidell

We started theweekend on theNew FarmersMarket in Slidellbefore we leftfor a wonderfulSwamp Tour. Itwas a beautifulday to explorethe swamp andto see the huge alligators in the water close tothe boat. We finished the day with drinks anddinner at Peter and Maxime Dammon, Arie’shost family.

The last day inSlidell we couldchoose our ownprogram. Saskia(Vuurens) andWerner made atour with theirhost families Al& Jan Tomsicand Jane Alfordto the Oak Alley Plantation, with a nice stop atthe Cabin Restaurant, an old slave dwelling Theothers were having a nice boat tour at the end ofthe day we all had a chicken dinner at BobPerkins house.

Monday, April 28 – St Charles Paris

We had breakfast with ourhost in a little restaurantwhere we were going to bepicked up by Martha Laqueand Jeannine Granier ofRotary club St Charles Paris.Breakfast took a little bitlonger so we left therestaurant a half an hour tolate. This was the start of avery busy week.

We We did not make up any losttime so we were too late at ourappointment with Police OfficerMark Mornay. Officer Mornay toldus about his experiences duringKatina. During the storm he wasstationed in St. Benard Parrish. A lotof criticism about the police duringKatrina was spilled by the media. Thestory of Officer Mornay gaveus the other side of the story;of a policeman who dideverything he could to help asmuch people as possible. Thiswas not easy; because hisheadquarter was flooded andthere was no transportation,communication or help. Hedrove around for almost a

whole day in a truck full of elderly from anursing home, because theyneeded some

medical attention. No hospital oreven the Superdome had space totake them. This was a shocking storyas well as the story of our nextappointment: dr. Deichman. Thiswas a doctor in Memorial hospitaland he was leading the evacuation ofthis hospital after Katrina. We arenot going to write down hiscomplete story but we would like to

recommend the book; Code Blue, he wroteabout his experiences during these daysdirectly after Katrina.

Our last appointment of the day was theFugro soil investigation laboratory. In thislaboratory soil test are executed on samplesretrieved from 5”-D borings which aretaken along almost every levee in the NewOrleans region. From January 2007 theyhave executed more then a thousand

borings and performed more then7000 triaxial tests??? (3-point), 6000unconfined compression tests,15000 Atterberg limits and 700Consolidation (4”-D) tests.

In the evening we met our newhosts in St. Charles parish.

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Tuesday, April 29 – St Charles Paris

This entire day we were the guests of RoyalHaskoning. Mathijs van Ledden, MaartenKluyver and Ries Kluskens (Kluskens is goed)provided us a full day program. The day startedwith an introduction of the activities of RoyalHaskoning in New Orleans. Haskoning is hiredby the US Army Corps of Engineers to set up astructure to determine the new boundaryconditions and levee heights for the hurricaneprotection system in 2011. After theintroduction we were shown around along allthe failures of the levees and structures duringKatrina.After this trip we were invited at the house ofMaarten and his wife Esther, who prepared anice barbecue for us. During this splendidbarbeque, the Hornets won their match. Afterdinner we went to the pub and attended theperformance of a Brass Band, which was a verygood ending of a very pleasant day

Wednesday, April 30 – St Charles Parish

In the morning we went to the chemical plantMonsanto, which makes fertilizers. Here, theytold us about their emergency preparation plansand how this worked out during Katrina. Duringa storm like Katrina the plant completely shutsdown, and only a small group of people isstaying behind to take care of the plant. Forthese people they have build a massive concretestructure on piles big enough for 6 people withfood, electricity etc. for at least 6 days.

After lunch during the Rotary Club meeting ofthe St Charles Rotary Club Arie couldn’t see orhear the word “levee” anymore and was invitedto play some golf with a Rotarian which was anoffer he couldn’t resist. The rest of the teamwent to the fresh water diversion project in StCharles. This is one of the two water diversionprojects currently running in Louisiana. The goalof this project is to restore the natural wetlands

in a small area of St Charles Parish. The watersupply of a wetland area is coming from threesides: fresh rain water, salt water from the seaand fresh water plus sediments and nutrientsfrom the Mississippi river. The type of wetlanddepends on the proportion of these three. Thesaltier, the fewer trees will grow there. Due tothe levees along the Mississippi river no freshwater, sediments and nutrients from the river areable to flow into the wetlands anymore. Thisresults, amongst other reasons, in salt intrusionand therefore changing the area in a woody areawith huge pine trees to a grassy wetland. This isless resistant against erosion. The riverdiversions should once again let water from theriver flow into the wetlands. The river diversionwe visited is a small diversion affecting only avery small area, but there are plans for muchmore diversion and much larger diversions.

After our visit to the water inlet of the diversionwe visited a pumping station which should keep

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st. Charles Paris on the east bank of theMississippi dry. A typical American feature ofthis pumping station is that the station is big (offcourse) with big (off course) pumps with huge(off course) discharge capacities. But all thesemuscle power was of no use because thedrainage canal which should bring the waterfrom the area to the pumps had a much lowercapacity than the station therefore only one outof three could be used at full power.

Near this pumping station Fugro wasperforming soil borings to retrieve soil sampleswhich were going to be tested in the laboratorywe visited at monday.

During the evening there was a crawfish partyorganized. During this wonderful diner along anice swimming pool we gave our presentation tothe members of the St Charles Rotary club, andto Mike, Betty and Kyle Gill who came all theway from Franklinton to say good bye to us.

Thursday, 01 may – St Charles Paris

Early In the morning we had to get out of bedvery early to visit the Louisiana State University(LSU) in Baton Rouge, except Arie who stayedat home to play another 18 holes of golf againsthis host family.

At LSU we had a very busy schedule. We startedto visit a small-scale model of the last 100 milesof the Mississippi river. This model has beenmade to study the impacts of possible futureriver diversions at different locations along theMississippi. The physical scale model showedthat large river diversions in the downstream endof the Mississippi could significantly reduce the

dredging effort.

After this JennekeVisser gave apresentation about theimpact of the current

river diversion on landscape, ecology andvegetation development. Data collection in herresearch was hampered by the fact that floatingmarshes are difficult to assess. In the lastdecades a dramatic change in vegetation typewas noticed in the delta: from maiden cane(large grass type vegetation with large roots) tospike rush (short grass type of vegetation onfloating marsh). For years Jenneke studied theimpacts of various restoration measures onnature development. After Kartrina the focus of

her research is more on flood protection and theimpact of wetlands on storm surge reductionJenneke is originally from Holland and we didthe social talk in Dutch, the technical part of theconversations we did in English because notonly she but also we do not know most of theDutch technical terms.

After this presentation mister Louis Thibodeauxinformed us about the health risks during andafter a flood. You can imagine that a flood isgiving a big mess: trash floating around, cars andgas stations leaking oil, and overflowed sewers.People trying to get away from the area arewalking and swimming in the water. GasolineBenzene that is a content of oil is very toxicwhen getting in contact with your skin.Fortunately this evaporates very quickly in thehot weather of Louisiana. Therefore there wereno severe risks, except when exposed to veryconcentrated doses like, for instance, in the verynear vicinity of a gas station. Another possiblethreat is toxic matter settling in the mud afterthe water is gone. The toxic matter is cluttering

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together with the smallest soil particles. Thesesmallest particles are deposited inside the homes,but even inside the homes the pollution of mostof the different substances were below criticalvalues. A substance, which does pose a threatwere spores of mould against the walls on theinside of the flooded buildings. Makingcontaminants wet causes vaporizedcontaminants that are easily to be breathed in.So an important lesson learnt is ‘When cleaningup an inundated house, never make thecontaminants wet, and always make sure thatyou do not touch mold without protection.

John Pine, a professor of disaster science andmanagement continued with a presentationabout legal issues impacting emergencypreparedness, response, recovery and mitigation.

After this we went to visit the HurricaneResearch Laboratory. Professor Marc Levitan

showed us the wind tunnels and someexperiments they did to test new materials toprotect glass in windows against flying debris.At he end of the day we had a final presentationof Chuck Villarubia about the Davis Pondfreshwater diversion project in St. CharlesParish. The diversion was originally designed asa fresh water diversion rather than sedimentssupply. The major aim of the diversion was toreduce the salt-water intrusion to restore thewetlands. We finished with a visit of the Mikethe “LSU” Tiger.

In the evening we went to a restaurant to havediner with Carlton and Subash. During dinnerwe discussed the lessons we learned during ourstay in Louisiana and Mississippi and the thingwhat we think should be done differently.Unfortunately we did not have enough time totalk about everything, but we will make aseparate note about this. This note is attachedtot this day-to-day report.

Friday, 02 may – St Charles Paris

In the morning we started with the lastvocational session of the trip, we went to visit alawyer mister Bruno. This lawyer is working on acase against the government/USACE to suethem for the damages caused by the floodsduring Katrina. A big obstacle in this case is thefact that the USACE cannot be held responsiblefor any faults they have made in the design ofthe Hurricane Protection system. The possibleloop around this absolute immunity is to proofthat the bad design and the bad maintenance ofthe navigational channel, the MRGO, hasincreased the loads on the levees, which hasresulted in the breaching of the levees. Becauseof their absolute immunity the USACE cannotbe sued for the breaching of the levees of theMRGO. They can be sued for the negativedrawbacks the channel caused, since it wasdesigned for navigation purposes, not for floodprotection.

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After this visit we went to Jazz Fest. This is thebiggest Jazz festival in the world. Every big jazz,blues or rock artist was performing here. Westarted at the festival with nice sunny weather,good music and nice food. We ended the day inthe pouring rain, but we had our rain ponchosand it was warm. During these big rain showerswe were listening to a one and a half an hourconcert of Stevie Wonder, which was awesomeand made up for all the rain!!!

Saturday, 03 may – St Charles Paris

This was a free day. Some of us just did nothing,others went to the city for shopping and to visitthe D-Day museum and one of the typical NewOrleans cemeteries. But for all of us it was a veryrelaxing day.

Sunday, 04 may – Going home / Florida

Saskia Vuurens and Nadine needed some restafter four weeks of exhausting program andboth went on an extra holiday to Florida. Therest of us went with a smooth flight back toHolland. At Tuesday we were back at work totell everybody what a wonderful trip we had.

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Four weeks in Mississippi and Louisiana,what an experience!

Approximately, four weeks ago we left TheNetherlands for the Group Study Exchange toMississippi and Louisiana. A bit unsure aboutthe exact vocational content of program, I setoff with the rest of the team to New Orleans.Now, in the airplane on the way back home Ilook back and feelcompletely satisfied: ‘It wasa once in a life timeexperience, what a fantasticprogram! Thanks to allRotary clubs in Districts6840 and 1610 for makingthis trip an unforgettableexperience.

Flood protection can beapproached from a widerange of views. TraditionallyThe Netherlands focused onpro-action (flood protectionpolicy and safety standards)and prevention (flooddefense system). After the flood disaster due tohurricane Katrina, The Netherlands start tofocus more on flood related aspects, such aspreparation (i.e. evacuation and disaster plans)and response (i.e. disaster management,emergency procedures). These four aspects formalong with ‘aftercare and recovery’-phase (i.e.

evaluation, damage completion, physicalrecovery, psycho-socio care) the so-called safetychain. During the Group Study Exchange, I hadthe wish to emphasis on the different chains ofthe safety chain from pro-action to after-care,and to elaborate on the societal aspects of theflood disaster disrupting a modern society inparticular.

The Group Study Exchangecontained all I wished for. We visitedorganizations and companies in awide range of applications in theStates Mississippi and Louisiana, fromlocal majors, emergency coordinators(policemen, firemen), medicalpersonal in charge of the evacuationof hospitals, managers of electricityplants to the US Army Corps ofEngineers, researchers from researchinstitutes and universities andengineers from consultancy. In thatway, the various aspects in the safetychains were addressed. Thepresentations and discussions gave acomprehensive overview of the

magnitude of the Katrina disaster and thechallenges the society of Mississippi andLouisiana faced and still face.

The Group Study Exchange emphasized theimmense impact area of Katrina. It showed thatKatrina did not only damage large parts of New

Orleans, but also caused extreme damage and alarge number of causalities elsewhere in thestates Mississippi and Louisiana. The tour alongthe levee system with the devastated areas inNew Orleans was impressive. I was amazed andshocked by the impact of Katrina along theMississippi Gulf Coast. Over more than 50miles, buildings and properties over a width ofhundreds of feet were completely washed away.The large number of empty slabs indicated theenormous devastation of the flood disaster.

The study exchange emphasized the importanceof amongst others communication, organization,disaster and emergency plans, assertiveness andleadership. It showed that the help provided bycharity organizations such as churches, schools,Red Cross, the Salvation Army, Rotary, Lions,etc. was extremely valuable. Moreover, it

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emphasized the need for a strong central floodprotection authority that takes the responsibilityfor an adequate flood protection in the future.The latter is of crucial importance for the statesLouisiana and Mississippi, and in particular forNew Orleans.

Being hosted by Rotary families appeared to be avery interesting way to get in closer contact withpeople that experienced Katrina. The storiesabout their personal experience were impressiveand indicated the differences in the way thepopulation throughout Louisiana and Mississippiexperienced the devastations of Katrina: therewere victims and people that helped the victimsback to life (although they were sometimes alsovictims). I wish the population of New Orleans,Louisiana and Mississippi all the best for nowand the future.

I want to thank the Rotarians of districts 6840for their hospitality. Additionally to thevocational ingredients of the program, I trulyappreciated the social events, boat trips, airplaneflight, sight seeing, Jazz, swamp tour. I speciallythank my host families for being such awonderful hosts.

Saskia van Vuren.

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Exploring the Mighty Mississippi

If you want to learn all about classical antiquity,you have to visit Rome. If you want to learn allabout impressionist art, you have to visit Paris.If you want to learn all about levees, you have tovisit New Orleans!

It was a cloudy day in November 2007 and I wasworking on my office. While the phone rangabout every five minutes and my desk was totallycovered with design drawings and reports, I wasreading the last incoming e-mail in my fullmailbox. It was about the possibility of joining aGroup Study Exchange with Rotary in NewOrleans and his surroundings. I knew almostnothing of Rotary and almost planned a trip toItaly in April. However, at that moment I almostimmediately decided to apply for thisopportunity, because I never visited this areabefore. But the mainreason was myprofessional interestin flood protectionissues.

The States ofLouisiana andMississippi are verydifferent than anyregion I visitedbefore. The overallpresence of large open water surfaces and the

flat landscape werecomparable to theNetherlands. Butthe mysteriousswamp landscape,the spectacularviews on the mightyMississippi Riverand the beautifulFrench Quarterhouses werecompletely new forme. I liked therelaxed way of lifein The Deep Southwith an overdose ofjazz music, gospel choirs and brass bands. Imissed my fresh whole meal sandwiches withslices of half ripe North Holland cumin-seedcheese, but this was highly compensated by the

Louisiana food withmuffulettas, jambalaya, softshell crab and alligatornuggets.

I have seen en learnt more ofthe Louisiana and Mississippiflood protection systems thanI could ever dream of. In NewOrleans, St. Charles Parish andVicksburg we did extensivelevee tours. We visited

spectacular structures like the Bonnet Carree

Spillway. We werewitness of thedevastating effectsof Katrina. Peopletold us abouthistoric mistakes inthe New Orleansflood protectionsystem. At the sametime we saw howsound (?) levees andflood gates alongthe Mississippi riverkept the extremehigh river waterlevels in place. In

the wetlands we were explained how to restore aswamp and why this is beneficial for the society.Rotary arranged meetings with over 40professional specialists in flood safety. But wecould learn of the Katrina experiences of many‘common’ people too.

In the meantime I was able to form a notion ofRotary. I learnt to know most Rotarians as activepeople that want to do some beneficial thingsfor society and help build goodwill and peace inthe world. Although I did not like some long-winded speeches and ceremonies, I enjoyed theofficial Rotary meetings. Because lots ofRotarians have their own business, hangingaround with them gave me the unique possibilityto get a behind-the-screen look into a wide

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variety of small firms. I, for example, enjoyedmy visits to a print shop, an architectural officeand a trunk speaker shop.

In short: the exchange met my expectations. Ihighly enjoyed hanging around with so manysmart, positive thinking and energetic people.And I am sure this experience will make the restof my life more complete.

I want to thank my team members, theAmerican and Dutch GSE committees, my hostfamilies, our host Rotary clubs, my sponsor clubDordrecht Thuredrecht, the Rotary members atthe conference, our drivers and guides, theexperts which made time to speak with us, theKatrina witnesses, the members of the AmericanGSE team, the musicians, the Cajun and Creolecooks, and all other people who make this tripan enormous success.

Werner Halter

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Once in a life time experience

This Group Study Exchange (GSE) to Louisianaand Mississippi was my third visit to the U.S.During the previous visits for holidays I wasunder the impression I had gained good insightsin American culture and society. However theseprevious trips can't match the in-depthexperience I gained during this GSE. Togetherwith this cultural experience, I was able to seewith my own eyes thedestructive effects ofHurricane Katrina. Thismade a lastingimpression andmotivates me tocontinue my work as aconsultant on watersafety. This exchangealso gave me insights inways of working ofdifferent organizationin relation to watersafety.

Cultural & personal experienceDuring our stay, we were guests at different hostfamilies. Staying with these families made mepart of American day-to-day life for a few days,spending time together and talking aboutsubjects like political system, social security,taxes, community service... Especially thecommunity service is something that jumps to

my mind. This is of course also enlarged by thedisaster Katrina. All people helped each otherout. Not only did people stay in the area whenthey were only limited affected by Katrina. Alsothe people who had been heavily affected didwhat they could for others. And that is whatmakes American people special: their drive tohelp people. I think that New Orleans and thesurrounding area wouldn't be the way it is nowwithout these people and charity organizations

like Rotary, churches, Red Cross, the SalvationArmy, etc.

The drive to help people not only showed offduring and after Katrina, but also during GSE-team. Looking back, the vocational program wasexcellent. We had a very ambitious list withwishes what to see and whom to speak.

Obviously the Rotary district 6840 took our visitseriously, and managed to organize almost everyvisit! And as you can read in our day-to-dayreport, we really have seen everything related toKatrina and flood and disaster management.

Biggest impressionsThere were three things that impressed me themost. In New Orleans, we made a tour along thelevee system and visited the locations where they

breached. Standingthere I couldimagine the impactof the water and Iwas shocked to seethat in the areabehind thebreaches, there wasstill almost nothingafter 2.5 years.Secondly, theimpact on theMississippi gulfcoast made a deepimpression. What

happened in this area was never enlarged on thenews, so I knew little about it. When we drovefrom Covington to Ocean Springs, which ismore than 50 miles, you could still see theimpact of Katrina. There are a lot of empty slabs(often with the stairs still intact) indicating theenormous devastation of the flood wave.

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Finally, there is the degradation of the wetlands.Katrina did not cause the degradation, butaccelerated it. Specifically, when flying over thearea, it became clear this is really a big, ongoingproblem that has to be solved.

Social visitsI also very much enjoyed the social program.Especially the interdependence between themusic and the people was special to experience.We encountered Jazz fest, visited different barswhere bands were playing and Rotary organizeda lunch concert with Ronnie Kole.

I won't forget the airplane flight and the boattrips through the wetlands and swamps. Withoutthe hospitality of the Rotarians, this wouldn't bepossible.

I would like to thank all the Rotarians of district6840 that gave me this once in a lifetimeexperience! Especially, Patty, fam. Dumas, fam.Brennan, Rosemary, fam. O'Bryan and fam.Laque. Also I would like to thank the rest of theGSE-team. We had a lot of fun together, withevery person contributing in his/her own way. Ienjoyed the discussions together. Thank y'all!

Nadine Slootjes

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It was a great tripThursday at eleven in the morning, still soundasleep the phone rang and awoke me. It was myboss on the phone; “I’m sorry to disturb youduring your leave but what do you think aboutparticipating in an exchange trip to NewOrleans, with the theme water protection?” WellI was not sure because I was afraid that it wasgoing to be one big cultural sight seeing tour ofa full month. So I called with my parents’ friendRoel ter Brugge who participated in a RotaryExchange program to this area 30 years ago andI called with a member of Rotary OosterhoutChris van Oord. They convinced me to do it andI’m happy I listened to them.

It was a great trip. We saw a lot of differentaspects in the field of water protection andemergency management of floods. We looked atdifferent aspects of Katrina: why and how didthe levees fail, what are the measures planned toprevent this in future, what is happening duringthe first few days after aflood, what are the socialimpacts of a disaster likethis. All of this made methinking, how would we actand react at each other.All of this made me wonderwhat Holland has in placefor emergency management,for example are the back-upgenerators of the hospitals

stored in the basement or at the third floor,where will everybody stay when it happens, whois going to pay for our houses (we can not beinsured against flooding)?What I do know is that our system to keep ussave and dry is much better then the system inNew Orleans. First of all our organizationstructure is clear, secondly our safety level ismuch higher: 1:100 year safety level is reallymuch to low.

Another thing what I really liked was the socialpart of the trip. I like to debate about all sorts oftopics but one of them was the constantlyreturning topic of politics. Now, I have a betterinsight in the reasons why Bush has been chosenfor a second time and why people are willing tovote for a man of 71 years old. One of the mainreasons is paying more tax under a democraticgovernment, which was the second mostdiscussed subject: tax.An often asked question is: are you married orsingle? Well I’m not married and not single but Ihave a girlfriend for more then 7 years and welive together now for over two years. This wasalso a topic which was discussed quite often. Itwas interesting to see that a lot people youngerthen me were already married.

It is unfortunately that Van Oord is not allowedto work in the USA due to the Jones Act. Iwould have loved to work and live in NewOrleans for a few years, to execute for example a

coastal defense project or a marsh restorationproject.

I would like to thank everybody for their greathospitality and for their effort to make this trip agreat success. Especially my host families:Victoria, Johnny, Nakheel, Mike, Lydia, Corry,Natasha, Charles, Gretchen, Mike, Betty, Kyle,Rosemary, Dick, Adelle, Anne and David.

Evert Uelman

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Impressive and wonderful trip!Last year I saw a documentary on the Dutchtelevision about Hurricane Katrina, the damageof the levee breaches and the impact on theNew Orleans’ community. I was touched by theSuperdome images and the program left a bigimpression. Especially, because I’m a hydrologist/ water manager and study al kinds of waterproblems during my daily work.

In December 2007 I had the opportunity to jointhe Rotary International - Group Study Echange(GSE) – program to New Orleans. I didn’thesitate any moment to apply for the specialGSE ‘water’ program. From December 2007 –April 2008 we made preparations for the GSE –tour. We got to know each other, talked aboutour interests and vocation. De last meetings wefocused on the flyer and the presentations. And,we all visited a Rotary Club in the Netherlandsto talk about our GSE program to New Orleans.

In the first days of our visit, we made a touraround New Orleans and visited the floodedareas. I was even more impressed, then a halfyear before, watching the documentary onDutch television. The first thing I learned, adisaster like this, has a huge impact on the wholesociety for years. In the weeks after, we travelledaround in New Orleans and parts of Louisianaand Mississippi. We visited many organisations,companies, universities and spoke with a lot ofpeople with different vocations and differentpoints of view. The vocational program gave meinsight in a lot of different aspects of impact ofKatrina, the degradation of the wetlands and theMississippi river. Thank you for this excellentprogram.

We gave our presentations during the RotaryMeetings once in a few days. We told aboutwater management in the Netherlands and our

response on former flooding. We discussed thesimilarities, but also the differences between theNetherlands en Louisiana / Mississippi watersystem and water protection. During the Rotarymeetings I noticed and became aware that theRotarians are truly committed to the community.Everybody is driven to build up the communityafter Katrina.

Staying with host families gave me a goodunderstanding of the American way of life. Allthe host families were very hospitable and tookgood care of us, being a part of their family. It’smuch more than being on holiday and staying ina hotel.

I loved the social events, like the flight above thearea, the swamp tour, visit Oak Alley, relaxing atthe Gill’s and stroll in the French Quarter. And,last but not least, the New Orleans Music andCulture, with Ronnie Kole’s special performanceand Stevie Wonder at Jazz Fest!

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This trip was my first time to the United Statesof America, and a special visit. I definitely willvisit the USA again for holiday! I hope I willmeet a lot of wonderful people again like duringthe GSE tour. I would like to thank the Rotaryand my employer Royal Haskoning for theopportunity to make this study tour. And, ofcourse, my host families (Patty Monjou, Steve &Robbi Cox, Al & Jan Tomsic, Mike & Betty Gill,Vaughn Brennan, Jeannine Granier & family,Ward Wicht & family) to live like an Americanfor a couple of weeks and made them part oftheir families. And, the other GSE-teammembers were great to travel with. I was animpressive and wonderful time in Louisiana andMississippi.

Saskia Vuurens

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Hostfamilies in Rotary District 6840

A special thank you for all the host families whotreated us as a real family member in theirhomes.

New OrleansPdg.George and Yvonne Mahl.Patty MonjuDr.Victoria SmithSubash and Neela Kulkarni

Mc CombNancy and Stan GillBobby and Liz McDanielMichael and Lisa CameronSteve and Robbi CoxJohn Dale and Jennifer DumasPat and Tina BrumfieldMike and Lydia Beebe

Mike, Betty and Kyle Gill

New OrleansJerry and Carolyn FortinoMr. and Mrs. Vaughn BrennanCharles and Gretchen Bosworth

Ocean SpringsRosemary FurrMr. and Mrs. Ward Wicht

SlidellPete and Maxine DammonAl & Jan TomsicDick and Adelle GrahamNeil and Jane AlfordDon and Nancy O`BryanBob and Laurenice Perkins

St. CharlesRobert and Sawako GensureJason and Martha LaqueLemmon LaurenAnne and David MoyerJeannine (Michael and Thomas) GranierAnd of course, all the other families whosupported us during our unique stay in Louisianaand Mississippi

Wybren Thanks!!!

Besides all the people we already thanked wewould like to give a very, very special thanks toWybren Epema who has given his support andadvice to us during the preparation, the firstweek and after the trip, on water related issues.Besides his advice it was fun to have him withus.

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WATER PROTECTIONRecommendations for Louisiana andMississippi

We would like to make the following remarksand recommendations for water protection outof our vocational and Dutch perspective. Wewant to emphasize that these recommendationsare based only on our observations during ourstudy tour, not on any additional research.

Short term versus long termDuring our stay we noticed that a lot of plansonly seem to focus on the short term. It seemslike, for example, the Army Corps of Engineersmakes plans for the nearby future and doesn'thave enough attention for the midterm andlong-term future. For example, the levees mustbe at the right safety level in 2011. But is thissafety level also the desired one? The safety levelof the levees in New Orleans is the same in allthe parishes, but what about differentiation? Isthe risk (probability x effect) in one area thesame as in the other one, now and in future? Weexpected that there would be a 'road map' tofuture that contains the steps to a final floodprotection system. Having midterm and long-term plans makes it less possible that measuresthat are taking now will be regretted in future.The recently published LACPR-report presentsseveral long-term plans for Louisiana, but it isnot clear how this report will be used.

Flood Protection versus wetland restorationsWetland restoration projects can be beneficialfor many reasons, like nature and fisherydevelopment. But, to gain the right level of floodprotection, do not only focus on wetlandrestoration. Decision makers have to comparewetland restoration with other measures likelevee construction. Because, at this moment, thebeneficial effects of wetland restoration on floodprotection are not quantified, the uncertainty issignificant. It’s important to objectively quantifythe effects first, on the short term and longterm, and monitor the effects frequently.

Water system approachThe system of flood protection is as strong asthe weakest link. There are future plans formaking New Orleans saver by building a stormsurge barrier. It must be made clear to politiciansthat building a storm surge barrier alone is notenough tot increase the safety standard. Thelevees around it, mustn't be forgotten. Wesuggest looking at flood protection from asystem based point of view.

ResponsibilityIn the Netherlands, the tasks, responsibility andcommunication structures between differentparts of the government (water boards, leveeboards, states, counties, USACE) are legislated.During our stay in Louisiana and Mississippi wenever figured out, who was responsible forlevees and how the different parts of the

government communicate with each other. It isuseful to have this clear, in time of emergencyand after.

Levee assessment and design

Advanced calculation methods for leveetesting and designIn the Netherlands we have differentcalculations methods for levee testing anddesign than in the USA. Some methods aremore advanced. Examples of Dutchcalculation methods, which may be used inthe USA are the calculation of long termhydraulic boundary conditions, the statisticalcalculation of soil parameters and theprobabilistic methods to define levee safety.

Directive frameworkIt is useful to create a framework directivetot assess the levees. In the Netherlands wehave legislation for assessing our levees andconstructions. This legislation prescribesthat every five years the hydraulic boundaryconditions must be calculated and contains aregulation the way the levees must beassessed. This will not only give moreinsight in the actual flood protection level,but also creates a framework formanagement and maintenance. Alsodifferent parts of the government deal withthe assessment. The federal governmentcalculates the hydraulic boundary conditionsthe levees must withstand and prescribes the

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assessment procedures. The water boardassesses the levees and is controlled byfederal government.

Data not availableDesign a sound geographical informationsystem to collect all levee data, which isaccessible for all levee designers andconstructors. During the design of a floodprotection system an abundance of data isgenerated. To control a flood protectionsystem, for example, in case of anemergency all underlying data (soilinvestigation data, calculations, water levels,technical drawings, etc.) must be easilyaccessible. That’s why it is important tocollect all levee data in one central,electronic system.

'Robust design'If a levee is not safe, the levee must beimproved. Do not design a leveeimprovement for the current circumstances,because then it may not be safe again in thenear future after land subsidence and seawater level rise. That’s why a 'robust design'is needed. 'Robust design' means forexample that a levee is designed for alifetime of 50 years, so uncertainties inclimatic changes are incorporated. But'Robust design' can also mean the flexibilityof a levee to strengthen easily.

Levee construction High quality dirt is not available

If there is no high quality dirt available forlevee construction, use compensationmethods. Compensation methods are forexample soil improvement. If the dirt is notstrong enough, a wider levee foundation canbe the right compensation method.Theerodibility of the dirt can be improved byfor example geogrids(strong plastic nets thatreinforce the dirt)

Lack of space1If there is little space available to constructor improve a levee, use innovative leveeimprovement measures. In America oftenfloodwalls are used. Floodwalls are asolution, but have several disadvantages(high costs, visual barrier, not adjustable).In the Netherlands we have recentlydeveloped new levee improvementsmeasures like expanding columns, soilnailing, levee dowels, etc. which can be usedbetter in some cases.

1Often we were told that there’s a lack of space to

construct or improve a levee. From our Dutch pointof view we think that at some locations there is‘technically’ enough space for improvement available.But, the area is of not public property, which makes itmore complicated. In the Netherlands in the utmostcase, the government dispossesses the privateproperty.

Regional water systemHurricanes often go with heavy rainfall. Thisprecipitation has to be pumped or drained tothe central water system (Lake Ponchartrain,Gulf of Mexico, Mississippi River). At thismoment the regional water system is notsufficient enough to deal with the heavy rains,which causes water in the streets and houses. Inthe Netherlands we don’t have hurricanes, butwe have to deal with heavy rainfall too. In everypart of the Netherlands the water boardscalculate the pump capacity in balance with thedischarge from the area and the available storagecapacity. If the storage capacity is not enough,special retention areas are created. If the pumpstations are too small, the capacity will beenlarged.

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Communication to the publicMany American people are skeptic about theway the flood protection system is beingimproved. At the same time very few peopleknow about what huge efforts are going on toimprove the flood protection of Louisiana.Better communication may make people morepositive and more willing to cooperate in leveereconstruction projects. We suggest improvingcommunication to the people living in apotential flooding area, so they are informedabout the risk and the plans.

EvacuationIn the Netherlands, we do not have a lot ofexperience with evacuation. The Mississippi andLouisiana people are better informed (website,flyers etc) than the Dutch citizens. Mainly,because in the Netherlands we do not have toevacuate as often as in the southern USA states,with the hurricane warnings. We think theDutch can learn about the American evacuationstructure, preparation and plans.