<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> On August 29, 2005, there were over 50 failures of the levees and flood walls protecting New Orleans, Louisiana, and its suburbs following passage of Hurricane Katrina and landfall in Mississippi . The levee and flood wall failures caused flooding in 80% of New Orleans and all of St. Bernard Parish . Tens of billions of gallons of water spilled into vast areas of New Orleans, flooding over 100,000 homes and businesses . Responsibility for the design and construction of the levee system belongs to the United States Army Corps of Engineers; the responsibility of maintenance belongs to the local levee boards . The Corps hands components of the system over to the local levee boards upon completion . When Katrina struck in 2005, the project was between 60--90% complete . Four major investigations were conducted by civil engineers and other experts in an attempt to identify the underlying reasons for the failure of the federal flood protection system . All concur that the primary cause of the flooding was inadequate design and construction by the Corps of Engineers . </P> <P> There were six major breaches in Orleans Parish: </P>

Why did the levees in new orleans break