Eng. Post: NOLA Levees Designed For Cat 3 Hurricaine
[Update Sep 4th - graphic from LA Times on Sep 3rd showing what they're doing to halt the flow of water into NOLA and seal the breach]Listen to the audio (from NPR, click on the title for the link) from Pam Fessler's report on why the levees failed. Basically, according to the Army Corps of Engineers, the levees were correctly designed and worked appropriately...for a cat 3 hurricaine. And they are most likely right. I have no reason to doubt that statement. Every engineer goes through this situation - a business or political decision is made which does not allow you to create something that is appropriate for all situations. Engineers HATE going back and doing something a second time.
Bottom line is that they were TOLD to do something that was not even being planned for. And they did it. And they probably told everybody that exact statement, that they'd be in trouble, that the levees provided a false sense of security. And even with the scenario planning of worst-case showing that you needed stronger levee systems, Bushie took money away from that work to pay for Iraq. And, BTW, some estimates are that, on average, 40% of all National Guard troops and equipment are not prepositioned in the US. They're in Iraq.
posted by jimboses @ 7:57 AM
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