Engineer on 60 Minutes: It would have taken decades to reinforce

[Quixote1818]

flood walls???? What???

He said even if they had started on them 40 years ago it might not have been enough to fix them???? Yeah Right!

Not to mention as someone else mentioned, what was all that water flowing over the top of the HUGE levies?

If it was the flood walls, and they are only two feet thick we are not talking about building the Great Wall of China around parts of New Orleans. I am not a civil engineer but I find it absolutely absurd and impossible to believe NOTHING could have been done as he implied???? Bull Shit!!! They could have fixed those flood walls in a couple of years at best. If they can expand a 200 mile highway from Albuquerque to Farmington, New Mexico in a year they sure as hell could just add a couple of more feet and make them 4 feet think for christ sake. What could be so hard about making flood walls thicker? You are just poring concrete something the Romans were doing thousands of years ago.

I got the impression this guy was covering his ass and 60 minutes should have talked to more than just one guy who had a hard time completing a sentence and was about as coherent and verbally skilled as Bush was during the first debate with Kerry.

[bullimiami]

1. someone needs to research this guys background. this is obviously

planted to obfuscate the facts.
maybe hes just a crackpot or maybe they paid him.
you never know with bushco.

[still_one]

2. did they ask why it took 6 days to get food and water

to the victims?

did they ask why it took so long to evacuate them after the storm?

[ThoughtCriminal]

3. At the current level of funding - sure

There are plenty of examples of bigger projects going up in a fraction of that time. You just can't do when the GOP handles the cash.

[King Coal]

6. No there's not. Hoover Dam took 500 years.

[Quixote1818]

9. How long did Hoover Dam take anyway? nt

[nuxvomica]

13. April 20, 1931 - March 1, 1936; cost $676M in today's dollars

From Wikipedia:

Construction cost: $49 million ($676 million adjusted for inflation)
Dam height: 726.4 ft (221.4 m), 2nd highest dam in the United States.
Dam thickness: 660 ft (200 m) at its base; 45 ft (15 m) thick at its crest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_dam

[tsuki]

16. Pentagon took nine months to build. During WWII. eom

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Oh, yeah, and how long is it going to take to shore them up now?

Six months top.

[mccoyn]

5. You can always add another foot.

I've heard that the existing system could hold to 95% of hurricanes. Add a couple feet and you are fine for 98%. Add a couple more and you can stop 99.5%. Each of these additions are more expensive than the last and require more land. Where would you stop?

[craigolemiss]

7. Ex corps of engineers head said last night

that the project was started in 1965 and was supposed to be complete in 1975, but to this very day they are still working on it.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

8. Well,

I don't know about New Orleans, but I know about the lower Ohio River. In 1936, there was a major flood-waters came 20 miles inland, totally flooding a number of towns and nearly destroying Shawneetown, which is on the banks of the Ohio. After the flood waters receded, FDR had a major levee building project, and also moved Shawneetown several miles inland, literally rebuilding the town and fixing and improving the levees. This was done by 1940, as I recall. Sure, Shawneetown is a small place, but it shows what can be done.

So don't give me this bull about it taking 40 years to build the levees.

[DefenseLawyer]

10. Oh did you say flood walls?

I thought you said the Great Wall of China. Nevermind.

[BootinUp]

11. Its a never ending battle, keeping the water out...but sounds

like he was exagerating to me too. The plan he was talking or thinking of was probably the wrong plan.

On Meet The Press there was discussion of a 15 billion plan submitted 3 years ago to the Congress for redirecting the Missisippi and restoring the wetlands. According to the guest who seemed to know his stuff, this plan must be carried out before New Orleans reconstruction begins in order to lessen future problems caused by rising sea levels and subsidence of the land in the area around New Orleans.

[Old and In the Way]

12. Is he a Halliburton engineer?

That would explain a lot.

[ThoughtCriminal]

15. Haliburton Years or Human Years?

:shrug:

[Wizard777]

14. EEEEEH! Out of time! The Republicans are an Anachronym. Not our

Constitution!

Send that dumb Son of a Bush to China! Make him count every last brick in the Great Wall. Then send him to Egypt to count every brick in the great pyraminds. When he gets Back the Democrats will have the Great Cat 5 Levee and NOLA built.

Their Big Genius says, "We didn't know." That isn't what anyone needs right now. Condi learned "Madarin" in 12 days. Then she spent the rest of the year learning Karate and 10 other Chineese words. (I know.)

[lateo]

17. Even so...

they have know for decades that this was going to happen.

No excuse.

[daleo]

18. The Manhattan Project took less than five years.

Apollo took less than ten. It all depends on the money and political will (which are much the same thing).

[linazelle]

19. Not only that, the problem STARTED decades ago...so * is cleared

How conveeeenient. :eyes:

[CabalPowered]

20. They built the Twin Towers in 3 years

I just watched it on the history channel. :)