I don't understand why the pumps and levee system

[Blue_Roses]

has not been updated. This has been an ongoing topic in NO since I was in college in the 80's--if there was ever a big hurricane the city would go under. I remember sitting in front of Lake Ponchatrain with a friend back then thinking it would never happen.

[shraby]

1. Probably corruption. Isn't that area pretty much

know for corrupt officials?

[Tace]

5. He He -- Clue Me Into Where The Non-Corrupt Officials Are

Really, name me one place on the face of the planet where an honest man can get a fair shake from his government.

[intheflow]

2. Seems to me the only way pumps could have been "improved"

would have been to have people manually pump the water out. As I understand it, the pumps failed when they lost the electricity.

[BillZBubb]

14. Yep, pumping stations need independent power generation

That one part of the system has to be failsafe.

[xultar]

3. Just like the electricity in the quarter that goes out once a week...

remember entergy adding a fee for updating the quarter and they never did. That is how nola is a bunch of hand washing dirty dealing against the hard workin people in that town.

[hootinholler]

13. Huey Long. n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. I am not an engineer

but is it possible to protect the city from a flood like this? This is an immense disaster.

[Tace]

8. Me Either... But About 50 Feet Of Land Fill Ought To Solve The Problem

It's not like we don't need land fills.

[BillZBubb]

12. It would be possible, but it would have cost hundreds of millions.

Now it might cost a billion or two. New Orleans and Louisiana aren't rich enough to pay that. They would need the Federal government to underwrite the expense.

It would have required two parallel earthern levees. The outer levee would be sacrificial in a worst case scenario, but would absorb almost all of the punishment from the water. The inner levee would not fail from being buffetted by the surge. It would simply have to be tall and stout enough to hold back a worst case water level. A single concrete levee would also work but would be WAY more expensive.

It also would have required pumping stations with independent electrical generation capacity.

Anyway, these types of barriers are more than possible. Look at Holland.

[TankLV]

17. They sure find money quickly for Iraq and the Airlines when they want to.

Don't spew the bullshit that there isn't enough money.

We're paying for the Iraqi's FREE NATIONAL HEALTH CARE SYSTEM goddammit!

They don't care to find NINE BILLION DOLLARS that's "lost" - no big deal.

They approved 87 BILLION - TWICE - at the drop of a hat - no they actually fell all overthemselves trying to be the first to do so!

No, THEY've proved it's not about the "money" or "cost" forever.

That's the exact retort I would use whenever one of the repukes or our so-called "leaders" points out that "we can't afford it" bullshit.

[Lars39]

6. The funding was cut.

[Dems Will Win]

7. By Bush himself

I just started a thread in GD on this.

It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.

-- Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004.

[Pallas180]

Well, where is Homeland Security? This is certainly under

their bailiwick...

[WiseButAngrySara]

16. Link please Dems? Really want to read it. TU...............n/t

[Lars39]

18. Here ya go,,,

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4493298

[pnorman]

9. "The funding was cut."

>
>
(ed.note: The following excerpts are from an article by Sheila Grissett which appeared in the June 8th, 2004 edition of the Times-Picayune.)

For the first time in 37 years, federal budget cuts have all but stopped major work on the New Orleans area's east bank hurricane levees, a complex network of concrete walls, metal gates and giant earthen berms that won't be finished for at least another decade.

"I guess people look around and think there's a complete system in place, that we're just out here trying to put icing on the cake," said Mervin Morehiser, who manages the "Lake Pontchartrain and vicinity" levee project for the Army Corps of Engineers. "And we aren't saying that the sky is falling, but people should know that this is a work in progress, and there's more important work yet to do before there is a complete system in place."

...

"I can't tell you exactly what that could mean this hurricane season if we get a major storm," Naomi said. "It would depend on the path and speed of the storm, the angle that it hits us.

"But I can tell you that we would be better off if the levees were raised, . . . and I think it's important and only fair that those people who live behind the levee know the status of these projects.
>
>

http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/8/30/212451/290

pnorman

[SoCalDem]

10. All governments like to spend "future money" NOW

It's the "Wimpy Factor"..The money for NOW projects can be handed out as patronage to ensure their re-elections..Long term projects often go over-budget becuse everyone low-balls them in order to get them passed, and when there are cost overruns it's campaign fodder for opponents, so they just spend the money and puch the projects further down the road..and they cross their fingers..and hope that nothing bad happens while THEY are in office..

[wli]

11. politicized funding of public works n/t

[Endangered Specie]

15. Well, a third of holland is below sea level

they seem to do a damn good job.

The only real way to protect this would be to have humongeous levees, like 30-40 feet high, and probably concrete reinforced, and perhaps double layer (like a ships hull).

Also, a pump system 3x as big and with some way of operating when the power source is completely submerged (nuclear?)

[leftofthedial]

19. repukes don't believe in global warming

and want the money for their mansions and bank accounts and SUV's

So they voted to shortchange the Corps of Engineers and to eliminate funding for updating the levees.