WWNO skyline header graphic
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Local Newscast
Hear the latest from the WWNO/WRKF Newsroom.

New Orleans Flood Protection: Stronger Than Ever, Weaker Than Intended

US Army Corps of Engineers
/
Wikimedia
The city's new $14.5 billion storm surge protection system is weaker than what Congress ordered it to be 50 years ago.

The 2014 hurricane season has started, and New Orleans metro area residents are living behind a new, $14.5 billion storm surge system acknowledged as the best they have ever had. 

But an investigation by The Lens shows this best-ever is still not as good as Congress originally ordered it to be.

WWNO's Farrar Hudkins talks with Lens reporter Bob Marshall about why the city's flood protection is weaker than what Congress ordered 50 years ago.

Support for coastal reporting on WWNO comes from the Walton Family Foundation, the Greater New Orleans Foundation, the Kabacoff Family Foundation, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

For fifteen years, from August 2001 to May 2016, Farrar Hudkins was one of WWNO’s most familiar voices, serving the station as Announcer/Producer, Chief Announcer, Chief Classical Announcer/Producer, and interim Music Manager. From 2007-2016, he programmed all classical music for our classical stream, and over his fifteen years he interviewed many musicians, including Joshua Bell, Carlos Miguel Prieto, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, and Emmanuel Ax. Farrar participated in New Orleans' musical community as a trumpet player. Today Farrar is still present on New Orleans Public Radio as the voice of many WWNO and Classical 104.9 underwriters, working for us from his home in South Florida.