Itinerary Overview

Sunday, November 5

Flight from Chicago O'Hare to New Orleans

Steamboat Natchez Cruise - Evening steamboat ride on Mississippi River to see river and study river levees

Overnight at Omni Royal Orleans in New Orleans

Monday, November 6

Visit U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District - Briefings on system history, what failed and immediate post-Katrina, new system under development

Bus Tour:

               Tour Pump Station #6

               17th Street Canal (visit breach, reconstruction, gate closure)

               London Ave. Canal (visit breach and gate construction)

               Lower 9th ward (visit breach site, neighborhood, levee reconstruction)

Evening drive to Vicksburg, Mississippi

Overnight at Hampton Inn, Vicksburg

Tuesday, November 7

Visit U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center - general tour of facilities, see physical model of 17th Street Canal, see centrifuge which models levee/soil/water intrusion to study soil failure under high water loads, visit Hazardous Waste Research Center

Visit Information Technology Laboratory's Scientific Visualization Center and Joint Computing Facility and see Sapphire supercomputer (rated 20th of the top 500 supercomputers)

Afternoon drive back to New Orleans with visit to Old River Control, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Control Structure that regulates the flow in the Atchafalaya and Mississippi rivers, and the Sidney A. Murray Jr. Hydroelectric Station, the largest prefabricated power plant in the world

Overnight at the Omni Royal Orleans in New Orleans

Wednesday, November 8

Riverboat John James Audubon Waterways Tour of the IHNC through the Industrial Lock to Turning Basin, Paris Road Bridge, and Chef Pass, study where possible closure gates may be built, and look at the marshes that are claimed to provide protection from surge

Flight back to Chicago