Breach vs. Overrun: Terminology Errors Didn't Help Clarify Situation in New Orleans

There has been (and continues to be) a great deal of confusion over who knew what and when as New Orleans was flooding.

Here's the latest picture:

The government says it was worried about the ocean overrunning the levee system surrounding New Orleans. They did not anticipate a breach, or outright break, in the walls.

According to dictionary.com, here are a couple of definitions:





breach: An opening, a tear, or a rupture. A gap or rift, especially in or as if in a solid structure such as a dike or fortification.









overrun: To overflow.







The results would be radically different: with an overrun, water would have come over the walls then stopped after the storm surge receded, while with the breach, the water would keep coming in until a levee was fixed or, in New Orleans' case, if Lake Pontchartrain emptied to a point just below the level of the breach. They fixed the levees before the lake emptied, but the damage had already been done.

So when President Bush said "No one could have anticipated that the levees would breach," he was being honest. They were worried about an overrun of the levees.

It doesn't excuse what happened, but it does clarify some points.