barit1;
Water ingestion at low RPM, if it causes any damage, will likely drive blades downstream into stator vanes.
From a friend who is an engineer and a retired 30-year airline pilot:
The entire thing is a "tail-wheel" three-point landing using the lower/aft surface of the engine nacelles as the "main-gear" and the aft-fuselage as his tail skid (a la the antique Spad)----beautiful water-skiing until, inevitably, the speed decay demanded an ever-increasing surface-area to sustain the hydrodynamic lift and, at this lower speed, water topped the nacelle-lip and entered the diffusers.
The engine pylons, severely damaged (modular titanium) by the catastrophic lateral vibration resulting from the dynamic imbalance of the N1 and MP compressor blades which, when driven into the guide vanes and down stream stators by the geese, would have sheared off and passed through the engine to say nothing of the captive remains of the geese themselves (average weight about twelve pounds) compacted into the axial compressors and rotated with the engine spool's mass possibly as long as flight was sustained. As soon as river water entered the diffusers the enormous drag load would lead to an unsustainable load on the pylon mount and the engines were torn from the mounts.
Without this "preconditioning-damage" of the pylon/wing mount the aircraft might well have "stood on its nose" rotating around the mid-pylon attach point (About the MAC?). When they locate the engines this theory may well be born out.
The only correction would be that one engine remained. He also adds,
A wonderful outcome marred only by the bleating of the media about "Miracles". The landing of this aircraft on the Hudson River is a testimonial to calm competence. The pilots having guiding the machine onto the river's surface, the cabin crew preparing the passengers properly for a ditching, the automatic deployment and inflation of the Airbus's escape slides (used effectively as floatation dinghies, their intended secondary use) and the orderly egress of everyone. Quite remarkable but completely in keeping with the known efficacy of standardized training in competent, dedicated people.