NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Seven years ago nearly to the day, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans with a tidal surge that defeated the city's flood defences. Now the Crescent City has a new weapon to fight Hurricane Isaac -- a world-class flood-defence system that cost $14.5 billion.
For the first time, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Tuesday morning moved gigantic floodgates into place at the upper end of Lake Borgne, closing a two-mile-(3.2-km)long barrier that stands 26-feet (7.9-meters) high. Known to local officials as "The Great Wall," it forms a first line of defence to protect low-lying neighbourhoods like the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish from a tidal surge from the Gulf of Mexico.
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