When the levee breaks…
May 24, 2006 by Laura | Trackback URI
We’re gearing up for another hurricane season. I’ve started my preparations. Whether the levees will be ready is the big question. An outside team has been investigating:
From the White House and Congress to local governments in storm-ravaged southern Louisiana, the Independent Levee Investigation Team called for a sea change in standards, practices and attitudes that it says is necessary if levees in New Orleans and elsewhere are to be safe enough to protect homes and residents.
“I myself, personally, wouldn’t purchase property and move into New Orleans if the intent of the nation, the state and the locals is to keep doing things the same way,” team leader Ray Seed, a geotechnical engineer from the University of California-Berkeley, said at a New Orleans town hall meeting Monday.
[...]In a report that is 500 pages long and still growing, team members blasted the Army Corps of Engineers for a flawed levee design that they say resulted in a system that cracked “unnecessarily” under Katrina’s storm surge.
Paul at Wizbang has been WAY ahead of the curve on this one since the hurricane with “Corps Starting to Admit Responsibilty For Flooding New Orleans” and “The Final Nail in the Corps Of Engineers’ Coffin.” But we can’t leave out the useless political patronage organization known as the Orleans Levee Board. To while away the time in Dallas while watching my city flood on TV, I read all their meeting minutes and reported what they were up to in 2005 instead of maintaining the levees.
This Times-Picayune animated map of the flooding shows exactly when and where the flooding took place, and how long it took to submerge 80% of New Orleans.
Here are some real-world consequences of patronage, corruption, and the Corps of Engineers malfeasance:
The left photo (with the car) is the home of a friend, about 2 blocks away from the London Avenue canal levee break. The right photo is of the house that was directly in front of the break. The house was picked up and moved clear across the street, slab and all. More damage coverage is in this video made by one of the youth at my church.
My family used to plan to evacuate for hurricanes rated 3 and up. In light of this new report by the Independent Levee Investigation Team, we’ll be reassessing that plan.
I feel so bad for the residence of NO.
But the arrogance and foolishness of man was the main cause of this tragedy.
Who decided to build a city below sea
level?
And then make the major attraction of the City be a festival of sin and unholiness.
God Bless
I agree with Randy.
Lord Bless,
Charlotte
By the time all of the finger pointing is over, it will probably turn out to be your fault, or even mine and I don’t even live in New Orleans.
BTW, you have a really nice blog!
New Orleans is where it is because it’s a port city. Over the years, it has expanded into lower-lying areas, but the entire city is not that low. If the Corps of Engineers had done it’s job, we would have been back to normal very soon after Katrina. Although I can understand why people react by suggesting we just rebuild elsewhere, I have not heard the same calls for moving L.A. and San Francisco, not to mention the entire coast of Florida. Everywhere people live there is some danger, and we mitigate it as best we can - but no place is really safe.
Also, I wouldn’t say that Southern Decadence is the major attraction, although I agree it is a very big deal here. It was scheduled to happen just when Katrina struck, and I had worked for days on an expose of what really goes on there. (No, I don’t think that Katrina was related to Southern Decadence. If that were true, we’d have been nuked, along with Vegas and Hollywood.
)
If Katrina were in retaliation for Decadence, it wouldn’t have spared the FRENCH QUARTER!
Umm, yeah. I just said I don’t think Katrina was related to SD. If God were going to do another Sodom and Gomorrah, which he isn’t, there are far more qualified cities to start with than New Orleans.