Modern Marvels - Engineering Disasters: New Orleans (History Channel)

One of the deadliest natural disasters experienced by US, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans--submerging it under a torrent of floodwater. We investigate why the levees and water-pumping system failed and join "Geological Detectives" as they sift through the rubble to uncover how 80% of the city was left underwater; expose how the levee system was a disaster in the making; and delve deep into the 100-year-old pump system to unearth why it failed and took weeks to drain the city. We learn the engineering cause behind the nightmare suffered by victims seeking shelter in the Superdome. And our investigators discover the design flaws on one of the major escape routes of the city. How can New Orleans stop this from ever happening again and should it be rebuilt at all? Using satellite global positioning, we determine New Orleans and the entire Louisiana wetland coastline is actually sinking and may become a modern-day "Atlantis" in less then a century.