In the news
Man envisions a better floodwall
Posted by Brendan McCarthy, staff writer of the Times-Picauyne
July 02, 2007
Sitting at the kitchen table inside his French Quarter home, 61-year-old John Knost taps repeatedly on a plain manila folder stuffed with hand-drawn sketches.
Inside are umpteen versions of a Da Vinci-esque drawing awash in straight lines and right angles. These sketches, he said, provide the solution to flood protection; a simple, cost-effective creation that came to him late one night, when a hurricane's devastation weighed heavily on his mind.
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"It's not just an invention," Knost said, but a "way to protect the Gulf Coast."
Although his idea is new, the approach is not. Knost and his wife, creators of the patent-pending Knost Flood Wall, are among a legion of everyday folks prompted by Hurricane Katrina to take flood control to a new level, putting their thoughts on paper and applying for patents.
Floating houses, unique emergency communication systems, escape barges that double as party boats, levee plugs and a waterproof floodwall: all proposed by noninventors anguished by the work of Katrina.
Knost's floodwall is essentially a backup plan intended to prevent water that tops or breaches levees from getting into neighborhoods. It starts below grade with a concrete inverted t-wall and rises above ground as high as desired, at least to the height of the minimum base flood elevation.
What sets it apart from a typical concrete wall is a construction-grade waterproof membrane running through it, protected by additional coverings and encased in the wall so it doesn't get punctured. Knost said the membranes are used in basement construction all the time, but no one ever thought of using one in a floodwall. Or, at least, no one applied for a patent, as Knost has.
An earthen berm is built on both sides, and a French drain with cut-off valves is put below ground on the flood-protected side to help pump out rainwater if necessary. Once completed, the wall looks like a small hill several feet across.
It is designed to be a perimeter wall around entire neighborhoods, with gates across roadways, that mitigates the potential damage from flooding without having to raise every home within the wall. Knost said the waterproof walls can be built at 50 percent of the cost of raising all the homes within a neighborhood. And, he said, the longer the wall, the more houses it protects, the more cost-effective it becomes.
Pitching the plan
Knost has yet to build one of his floodwalls. But like all inventors, he swears it will work. No one has slammed the door on Knost. Some say the newly minted inventor makes sense.
He pitched the plan to FEMA, wondering whether anyone else had thought of it. The agency told him it had not received any applications for his concept. An official suggested he submit the proposal on a local level, to civic organizations who can apply for state mitigation grants.
"We are not in the position to approve or disapprove projects," said FEMA spokesman Andrew Thomas. "That's not what we do."
However, FEMA's chief of acquisitions, who is not an engineer, said the invention "seemed viable" and "may have merit."
After receiving constructive criticism on his proposal from the Army Corps of Engineers, Knost applied for a patent and has brought his plan to the attention of several local civic groups, a handful of flood-prone cities and a litany of political playmakers.
"This is an idea that made me say, 'Gosh, imagine if the city had these perimeter walls inside the city prior to the hurricane,'¤" said Al Petrie, president of the Lakeview Civic Improvement Association. "I thought the concept was very interesting, and we are definitely talking about it. It is one more way to provide some mitigation protection."
Petrie said his group is looking at several alternatives, but acknowledged it is talking and meeting with Knost.
Beyond Lakeview, Knost has pitched his product to U.S. senators and to a city in Texas that sustained heavy flooding recently.
'It's our baby'
Knost considers himself an optimist. Born and raised in Shreveport, he began working in the roofing and waterproofing business and rose through the ranks, ultimately becoming a "three-piece suit guy" who specialized in marketing and advertisement.
Following stints in Boston, Minneapolis and Japan, Knost returned to Shreveport to face his biggest challenge: throat cancer. A longtime smoker, Knost underwent an invasive surgery in which doctors removed and rebuilt his throat. Today his voice sounds as if it flows over gravel.
Three years after the surgery, Knost's bad heart prompted a quadruple bypass. He said he is in his best physical condition today thanks to his wife, Kathy.
The couple spent 13 days holed up in their French Quarter home following the hurricane. It gave him a new outlook on life in this city. "I'm from the Yankee part of the state and I never thought I'd live here," Knost said. "Now I can't leave. And I want to help save this city."
Kathy Knost is a professional faux-finisher. She makes lampshades and home furnishings, paints and textures walls. They met through a construction job, and they've since become partners in marriage and business. She finishes his thoughts; he finishes her sentences.
Since John Knost first sketched his floodwall, the couple has worked non-stop to push the invention.
"It's our baby," Knost said. They wake at 7 a.m. each day, use the computer for research and reserve the rest of the day for marketing meetings. They've pooled savings, begged and borrowed from family and friends.
"We've sunk a lot of money into it," he said, before quickly correcting himself. "Eww. Sink. I hate that word."
As a child, Knost wanted to be an architect. Construction management came close, but he never figured himself for the heady title of inventor.
"It hit me at the patent attorney's office," he said. "We got in the car and Kathy said, 'John, you are now an inventor.'"
The construction management business hasn't been booming for Knost lately, so the builder cum inventor said he is banking on that late-night sketch. "If we get fortunate, if this pans out, there will be a lot of work left to do."
Brendan McCarthy can be reached at bmccarthy@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3301.