..fuming, calling the corps' work on the levee "criminal" and "half-assed"

[NNN0LHI]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002516982_ritalevees24.html

New Orleans flooding: "back to square one"

<snip>"Looking back, we wish we'd put a foot or two more" on the overtopped sections, Corps of Engineers spokesman Dan Hitchings said.

"The bottom line for New Orleans is that they are back to square one: pump, pump, pump and start over again," said Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center.

He said no one from the Corps of Engineers had asked the center to do storm-surge modeling that might have predicted that the repaired levees wouldn't hold.

One state senator was fuming, calling the corps' work on the levee "criminal" and "half-assed."

Walter Boasso, a Republican who serves nearby St. Bernard Parish, said the corps "once again" ignored his district by fortifying the levee inadequately. The flooding has ruined any chances at salvaging a number of buildings, he said, and put his residence in 6 feet of water.

The corps "knew the storm was coming," he said. "They had plenty of time." snip

Water coursed from the Industrial Canal in at least three places, pouring over the levees and eroding the newly built walls. Corps officials called the problem an "overtopping," but it looked like white-water rapids yesterday afternoon.

[slor]

1. Yeah sure...it is their fault...

nevermind the chimp's cuts.

[John Q. Citizen]

3. The corps is who would do the work had the funding been in place.

The corps is part of the administration. So don't see it as a diversion of responsibility from the bush crime family, see it as proof they could give a shit.

[barb162]

2. I AM NO CIVIL ENGINEER

but I suspect you can't do diddley with them when they are waterlogged from a hurricane

[Ian David]

4. Maybe dump tons and tons of silicon dioxide or that other stuff...

that they use in diapers.

Turn the water into a huge gelatinous glob of colloid suspension.

[astonamous]

5. Maybe some duct tape and plastic sheeting.

I was surprised they were able to get anything done with all that water. It was amazing to see NOLA dry out as fast as it did, but did you see the pictures of all those buildings/houses that just collapsed after the water went down? I just keep thinking how horrible it must be for all those that have worked so hard their entire lives and maybe for 2 or 3 generations or more, to get what little bit they had and now everything is gone.

[barb162]

6. Some woman from NOLA just announced right before Rita

that they had gotten the flooding in the city down to only 10% and before that 80 % or so of the city had been flooded. It was really a masgnificent effort to get all that water out of the city so fast. Two damned major hurricanes have affected Louisiana in 3 weeks. Sometimes I think people expect way too much. The storm surges and flooding and rain and wind that have hit LA have been and are catastrophic.

It is a tragedy for the entire state of LA what has happened and with what is happening now with Rita. If the northern part of the state ends up with 20"+ of rain from Rita now on top of the rain they had from Katrina, the whole state will be massively flooded. It's horrible.

[jobycom]

7. The other repaired levees held.

[miss_kitty]

8. I knew that was gonna happen

and I'm not even an engineer.

[KharmaTrain]

9. They Focused On The Wrong Canal

There are two canals that breeched. The one that's seen most frequently is the 17th Street/London canal. That seperates Jefferson & Orleans Parish and was the first one to breech. That one, the Corp shored up real well. They fixed the canal wall, then damned up the entrance to the canal, so no waters came surging in that area...saving a good 60% of the city from a renewed flooding horror...as well as preventing a problem from happening on the other side...toward Jefferson Parish...that didn't flood.

The other canal is going to take a long time to work out...and the most deadly. That's the Industrial/Ship canal that connects Lake Ponchetrain with the Mississippi...not far from the French Quarter. This canal had several breeches...including the one with the barge that send waters flooding into the 9th district...the area that took the greatest devestation the first time.

Looks like the just patched up the hole in the dam...cause it isn't as accessible as the London canal site...thus making repairs difficult. They just finished pumping all that water out from Katrina so they could get into the area...and now it's back under 8-10 feet. A spokesman said this would send them back 2 to 4 weeks. I guess it shouldn't matter considering how much of a loss that area already was. Just insult to injury.

If that bastard in St. Bernard wants to restore his parish...maybe he should look at the contractors who built their houses and strip malls on former wetlands and marshes that handled the overflow from such disasters. What was the corp going to do in 2 weeks? Build a 10 foot seawall around the parish?

[barb162]

10. your last paragraph

I agree there has beenn way too much building in areas that should have remained bayou, etc. But the tax bodies want taxes and allow buildingn in areass that NEVER should have been built on the entire Gulf Coast. It is CRAZY. Somebody in government should be discussing whether some of these low-lying areas should ever be rebuilt.
I commented in the last few weeks that at least five miles inland there should be NO building. Let the barrier islands, sandbars, bayous, etc., do the job nature intended them to do. Houses and condos should nnot be built on sandbars or 20 feet from a beach. I don't care that people like their view of the Gulf; that should be national seashore. We are building in very damage prone areas because of greed.

[KharmaTrain]

11. It's Been Parts Of Several Plans/Studies

The damned thing about "progress", you don't realize how well you've done until you've really messed up.

The "controling" of the Mississippi River is the indirect culprit here...as it was in the 1927 floods. The damning and building of eddys and levees along the banks already took a toll downriver...as the wetlands vanished and the area became far more vulnerable to flooding.

I firmly agree on St. Bernard. That was truly swamp...and someone saw fortunes to be made. What the hell...they're are more wetland further south. Little did we/they know then. By the time environmentalists started to see how bad things had gotten in the 70's, too much development had taken place and the powers-that-be weren't going to be stopped. Having major oil companies in your neighborhood helps a lot, too.

The 1998 study that was to shore up the NOLA levee system...that was slashed by this regime, also earmarked money for reclaiming land and doing other things to restore important wetland and barrier areas. But we had to invade Iraq...priorities ya know.

Peace...