Corps officials: Funding levels not to blame for flooding

Chicago Tribune ^ | September 1, 2005, 8:39 PM | Andrew Martin and Andrew Zajac

[andie74]

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday that a lack of funding for hurricane-protection projects around New Orleans did not contribute to the disastrous flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina.

In a telephone interview with reporters, corps officials said that although portions of the flood-protection levees remain incomplete, the levees near Lake Pontchartrain that gave way--inundating much of the city--were completed and in good condition before the hurricane.

However, they noted that the levees were designed for a Category 3 hurricane and couldn't handle the ferocious winds and raging waters from Hurricane Katrina, which was a Category 4 storm when it hit the coastline. The decision to build levees for a Category 3 hurricane was made decades ago based on a cost-benefit analysis.

"I don't see that the level of funding was really a contributing factor in this case," said Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, chief of engineers for the corps. "Had this project been fully complete, it is my opinion that based on the intensity of this storm that the flooding of the business district and the French Quarter would have still taken place."

[Jeff Chandler]

Our infrastructure has become holy

Amen.

[wingnutx]

BUMP

[MikeGranby]

> The value of a human life is absolute - and can
> never be quantified. You can't spend enough to
> save one person - let alone thousands.

What nonsense. These trade-offs are made every day when cars and airplanes are built, when roads and buildings are designed. Someone said built it to withstand the strongest cat 5. Great! Do you mean the strongest yet? What if a stronger one comes? It could easily happen. You'll end up spending the entire GDP of the country on a single bridge if you follow your argument...

[Gondring]

Building for a category 4 storm would have been stupid. But they didn't have the stomach for the smart answer--letting the Mississippi cut to the Gulf and stop building up levees to fight the inevitable.

[Gondring]

You'll end up spending the entire GDP of the country on a single bridge if you follow your argument...

Just like the wacko environmental regulations that chase one death in a million, costing millions of dollars that could have saved MANY lives if put into other things.

[Uncle Donuts]

ping for later read

[airborne]

In recent years, funding has dropped precipitously, which some officials attributed in part to the escalating costs of the Iraq war. Funding for a drainage project in New Orleans went from $69 million in 2001 to $36.5 million in the current fiscal year, while funding for such hurricane-protection projects as levees around Lake Pontchartrain declined from $10 million in 2001 to $5.7 million this year, according to figures provided by the office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.).

Funding for these projects has generally trended downward since at least the last years of the Clinton administration. Congressional records show that the levee work on Lake Pontchartrain received $23 million in 1998 and $16 million in 1999. It was not clear how much the drainage project received in 1998, but records show it received $75 million in 1999.

All that money, and what's to show for it?