A floodwall gate at Harlan, Kentucky temporarily opening for train passage.

U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter boosts a sand bag containing 15,000 pounds of sand and gravel en route to a mission to fill one of the breaches in the New Orleans-area levee and flood wall system in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on Sunday, September 4, 2005. Photo by Alan Dooley, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

A flood wall (or floodwall) is a man-made primarily vertical barrier designed to temporarily contain the waters of a river or other waterway which may rise to unusual levels during seasonal or extreme weather events. While wide earthen levees are located along miles of waterfront in many rural areas, often protecting farmland, most flood walls are located in large cities or urban areas where their substantial cost can be justified by the value of commercial property thus protected from damage caused by flooding. Flood walls often have "flood gates" which are large openings to provide passage except during periods of flooding, when they are closed. Image File history File links Floodgate, floodwall source:http://www. ... Image File history File links Floodgate, floodwall source:http://www. ... Jump to: navigation, search ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (2000x2936, 310 KB) Summary An Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter boosts a sand bag containing 15,000 pounds of sand and gravel en route to a mission to fill one of the breaches in the New Orleans... Jump to: navigation, search ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (2000x2936, 310 KB) Summary An Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter boosts a sand bag containing 15,000 pounds of sand and gravel en route to a mission to fill one of the breaches in the New Orleans... United States Army Corps of Engineers logo The United States Army Corps of Engineers, or USACE, is made up of some 34,600 civilian and 650 military men and women. ... Jump to: navigation, search The Murray River in Australia. ... Jump to: navigation, search A levee, levée (from the feminine past participle of the French verb lever, to raise), floodbank or stopbank is a natural or artificial embankment or dike, usually earthen, which parallels the course of a river. ... Jump to: navigation, search Categories: Television stations in Toronto | CHUM Limited ... Jump to: navigation, search Look up Flood on Wiktionary, the free dictionary A flood (in Old English flod, a word common to Teutonic languages; compare German Flut, Dutch vloed from the same root as is seen in flow, float) is an overflow of water, an expanse of water submerging land...

Flood walls are located in many U.S. cities, notably St. Louis, Missouri, Louisville, Kentucky, Cincinnati, Ohio, New Orleans, Louisiana and Richmond, Virginia. The Gateway Arch, shown here behind the Old Courthouse, is the most recognizable part of the St. ... Jump to: navigation, search Louisville (usually pronounced ; see Pronunciation below) is Kentuckys largest city and the 16th largest city in the United States. ... Jump to: navigation, search Cincinnati is a city in southwestern Ohio, United States that lies on the Ohio River and is the county seat of Hamilton County6. ... Jump to: navigation, search For information on the events of Hurricane Katrina, see effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans. ... Jump to: navigation, search Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States of America. ...

In September, 2005, following Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, much of which is located below sea level, was substantially flooded after its system of levees and flood walls failed due to soil conditions and poor design. Jump to: navigation, search Hurricane Katrina was the eleventh named tropical storm, fourth hurricane, third major hurricane, and first Category 5 hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. ... For considerations of sea level change, in particular rise associated with possible global warming, see sea level rise. ...

See also

• Floodgate

Tokyo floodgates to protect from typhoon surges. ...

External links

• Richmond's Flood Wall