Hurricane Katrina, the most expensive natural disaster in the history of
North America, instigated the most complex and extensive engineering
investigation in history.  The most significant controversy, produced and resolved through distrust and conflict, occurred over the length of the sheet pilings at the breach of the 17th Street Canal.  The nearby community was white and wealthy, as contrasted with the African
American community known worldwide owing to the flooding of the 9th ward. In December of 2005, at the height of the investigation, the most plausible hypothesis for the catastrophic failure of the 17th Street levee was related to the length of the sheet piling beneath the floodwall.

The research presented here is based on video ethnographic methods.  The presentation is an audiovisual essay focusing on the two day public event involving the Army Corps of Engineers, their chief antagonists in Team Louisiana, private attorneys, state investigators, and press corps that produced the event for print and broadcast media.  The public spectacle was designed to produce a “golden moment” of engineering in which the length of the sheet pile could be instantaneously and decisively revealed.  The video ethnographic methods utilized here allow for the reconstruction of this moment as well as its expectedly complex backstory.