The maintenance of the levees became the responsibility of landowners (Through the Eye of Katrina). .
The Spanish continued this after acquiring the colony in 1763. As a result of each landowner erecting their own levee, it caused inconsistency and quality of the levees. In 1816 a major flood broke through the levees, leaving parts of the city underwater for months. A similar flood washed over the city in 1823, followed by and even greater event in 1849 (Colten, 2006). Like others before and after, officials raised the levee height and encouraged additional urbanization on the floodplain. In 1879 the Mississippi River Commission and the United States Army Corps of Engineers assumed primary levee building and despite major levee failures during an unprecedented flood in 1927, New Orleans remained untouched (Colten, 2006). .
From 1915 to 1964, New Orleans was pummeled with several major hurricanes and in 1965 Hurricane Betsy gave a preview of Katrina. Water broke through the levees along the Industrial Canal and produced severe flooding in neighborhoods flanking the canal, the Lower 9th Ward, and the Bywater district. Rising water forced many to climb into dark attics, tear holes in their roofs, and sit in the hot sun the next day awaiting rescue (Colten, 2006). Politicians called for massive levy improvements for the city; governor at that time John McKithen pledged that he would "see that nothing like this happen in our state again" and asked Congress to take steps that would "make a repeat of this disaster impossible" (Colten, 2006). .
Congress first authorized the Lake Ponchartrain and Vicinity, Louisiana Hurricane Protection Project in the Flood Control Act of 1965. The project was to construct a series of control structures, concrete flood walls and levees to provide hurricane protection to areas around Lake Pontchartrain. The project was expected to take 13 years and cost about 85 million dollars (GAO, 2005).
