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City was warned levees wouldn't hold
World Net Daily ^ | Sept. 1, 2005 | Staff Writer

Posted on 09/02/2005 5:57:20 AM PDT by conservativecorner

IN KATRINA'S WAKE City was warned levees wouldn't hold 'Terrible, devastating' damage foreseen by emergency planners

A number of Mississippi River engineers say they've been warning for years that New Orleans' system of levees and dams could not defend against a weather onslaught like Hurricane Katrina.

The warnings were all but ignored by the federal government, which failed repeatedly to fund needed improvements, USA Today reports.

"This is horrible, terrible and devastating," Claude Strauser, who retired from the Army Corps of Engineers earlier this year, told the paper. "But everybody knew it was vulnerable."

To add to the mayhem, more water than anyone ever expected still is hammering the city three days after Katrina dispersed, turning the city's rehearsed disaster responses into exercises in futility.

Joe Suhayda, a retired Louisiana State University engineering professor and oceanographer, said disaster planning in which he participated just last year clearly demonstrated a storm the size of Katrina would render useless the city's flood fortifications. He said the problems were "an acknowledged, likely scenario that was not dealt with in the sense that [officials] solved the problem."

In last year's drill by city, state and federal officials, a fictitious Category 3 storm – "Hurricane Pam" – with 130 mile-per-hour winds, left a path of destruction that nearly mimicked Katrina's damage: 1 million people left homeless, thousands needing rescue and about 600,000 buildings damaged or destroyed.

Katrina, by comparison, was a Category 4 storm with 140-mile-per-hour winds when it hit landfall Monday.

Despite the now-realized accuracy of last year's disaster model, Suhayda said it is still hard to fathom such destruction.

"The circumstances, the personnel, the weather conditions, the size, the location – these are all factors that make the real world more complicated than your planning," he told the paper.

Officials are working diligently to patch levees, pump out water and reinforce dams but, so far, are having only limited successes. Experts say the biggest need is to rid the city of as much excess water as possible so crews can gain access to sites requiring repair.

But the miscalculation will be costly in human and economic terms. Thousands of people are feared dead – trapped then drowned by the unexpected deluge of water now besieging the city – and billions of dollars worth of damage has been done.

Plus, much of the U.S. oil refining capability in the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding region, home to 30 percent of American production capacity, has been severely disrupted or disabled. That has led to domestic retail gas prices skyrocketing as high as $6 a gallon and to rationing of fuel at truck stops and other fuel stations.

In a statement to reporters Tuesday evening after viewing the damage to New Orleans during a helicopter tour, President Bush said one of the nation's priorities will be to repair the infrastructure laid waste by Katrina.

"There's a lot of work we're going to have to do. In my flyover, I saw a lot of destruction on major infrastructure. Repairing the infrastructure, of course, is going to be a key priority," he said, noting that included "repairing major roads and bridges and other essential means of transportation as quickly as possible."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Louisiana
KEYWORDS: katrina; neworleans
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1 posted on 09/02/2005 5:57:22 AM PDT by conservativecorner
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To: conservativecorner

The warnings were all but ignored by the federal government, which failed repeatedly to fund needed improvements, USA Today reports.


The major message in the 3rd paragraph. Did the local government head the warning?


2 posted on 09/02/2005 6:07:02 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Seeking the truth here folks.)
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To: conservativecorner

40 years of Democratic mismanagement of a segment of humanity takes generations to overcome. Yes, people are suffering in New Orleans, but then there are the other inner cities in America where life isn't what it should be. Where's the plan??? And the band plays on.........and JJ and Al are still your pal.


3 posted on 09/02/2005 6:07:42 AM PDT by kipita (Rebel – the proletariat response to Aristocracy and Exploitation.)
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To: conservativecorner

Did local and state officials work with the feds to take measures to fix these problems? I don't know the history of this.


4 posted on 09/02/2005 6:11:04 AM PDT by twigs
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To: conservativecorner
they've been warning for years ... The warnings were all but ignored by the federal government

Such vagueness is useful if you want to make this seem like Bush's fault. To pinpoint warnings to a particular year, say, 1997, would appear to criticize Bill Clinton. We can't have that.

5 posted on 09/02/2005 6:12:50 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy
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To: TexasGreg

Ping


6 posted on 09/02/2005 6:14:29 AM PDT by GarySpFc (Sneakypete, De Oppresso Liber)
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To: PeterPrinciple

Note that USA Today didn't put a timetable on the "ignoring" by the Federal govt or they would have been forced to acknowledge that the problem has been ignored for decades and Bill Clinton cut finding for flood prevention projects in NO. They preferred to leave it vague which suits their purpose of blaming the current administration.

There were many posts on an earlier thread about Clinton's culpability in this and some were optimistic that the MSM would eventually point out that the problem is decades old and not limited to this admin. Those posters were living in a dreamland. This article clearly shows how the MSM plan to get around blaming anyone other than Bush.


7 posted on 09/02/2005 6:17:23 AM PDT by Arkie2 (Mega super duper moose, whine, cheese, series, zot, viking kitties, barf alert!)
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To: PeterPrinciple
"The warnings were all but ignored by the federal government"

We don't all live in New Orleans it was their problem. They wanted to live there, they should of fixed it or moved. But now will all be made to pay for it.

We're all forced by law to subsidize irresponsible behavior. And that, in a nutshell, is Liberal Econ 101.

8 posted on 09/02/2005 6:18:36 AM PDT by avg_freeper (Gunga galunga. Gunga, gunga galunga)
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To: conservativecorner

The Governor, the Attorney General, and the Mayor are immediately and obviously culpable for failing to provide leadership, carry out existing relief plans, and properly coordinate relief and security efforts, What about them?

These guys put the cluster in cluster #!*k. What about them?


9 posted on 09/02/2005 6:27:45 AM PDT by claudiustg (Go Sharon! Go Bush!)
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To: conservativecorner

I'm afraid we are losing this battle! First because the anger of the folk there and around the country NEED to blame someone and that someone is W! This morning I woke up to nothing but "IT'S BUSH'S FAULT" screams from the mediaWHORES and some folk being interviewed! Second, the mediaWHORES are flaming the fires of hatred, venom and blame, with a purple passion against W and the pubs already! Third, unfortunately, we the conservatives don't have a visual outlet to defend ourselves against the typhoon of criticism and lies the presstitutes are hammering us with. Yes, we have the Internet, but VISUALS speak volumes! Just like the MSMbastards covered for BUBBA, they'll do the same for Blanco and Landerui(sp?) This is going to get nastier as time goes by! Give it a couple of weeks and we'll see the SHE-DEVIL come out of her hole and be painted as N.O. saint by the MSMpresstitutes!


10 posted on 09/02/2005 6:31:08 AM PDT by RoseofTexas
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To: conservativecorner; All

.

The Man Who Predicted 9/11 - RICK RESCORLA

http://www.strategyzoneonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24361

.


11 posted on 09/02/2005 6:31:58 AM PDT by ALOHA RONNIE ("ALOHA RONNIE" Guyer/Veteran-"WE WERE SOLDIERS" Battle of IA DRANG-1965 http://www.lzxray.com)
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To: avg_freeper

"We don't all live in New Orleans it was their problem. They wanted to live there, they should of fixed it or moved. But now will all be made to pay for it."

I am personally betting that if the city of New Orleans had given the money to the Core of Engineers to improve the levee system then it would have been done...I have no doubt that even a casual glance at the books of the city of new orleans (or state of Louisianna) would show plenty of opportunities for them to find the money.


12 posted on 09/02/2005 6:33:53 AM PDT by Prysson
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To: twigs

NO! We have a name for all the finger pointing and name calling though. It has something to do with a horse, a barn, and a door. We could all help by contributing to our chosen charity, as we enjoy the reasoned discussions of how to avoid a recurrence in our future.


13 posted on 09/02/2005 6:35:27 AM PDT by wita (truthspeaks@freerepublic.com)
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To: conservativecorner

A terrific prescient Sci Am article from 2001...the graphics are great if you dont mind the pdf format

http://www.sacoriver.net/~wolfrun/SciAmNO.pdf


14 posted on 09/02/2005 6:36:53 AM PDT by fahraint (git thar fuhstest with the mostest)
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To: PeterPrinciple

That's what municipal financing is for. They could have passed it as a bond issue (if they could have gotten out their machine) and financed it through tax-exempt municipal bonds. They had enough revenue to do this. Another Democrat administration acting in a visionary, civicly, responsible way.


15 posted on 09/02/2005 6:37:10 AM PDT by MHT
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To: Prysson
"I have no doubt that even a casual glance at the books of the city of new orleans"

I would bet that those books have quite coincidentally become the unfortunate "casualty" of some of the sudden fires being started as of late.

16 posted on 09/02/2005 6:38:20 AM PDT by avg_freeper (Gunga galunga. Gunga, gunga galunga)
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To: twigs
Did local and state officials work with the feds to take measures to fix these problems? I don't know the history of this.

I am sure there were a few, but the majority had their heads buried in the sand. If enough local and state officials had raised crap about this, a lot more attention would have been paid to it. Of course it would still have taken hundreds of millions of dollars to fix and a decade or so to fix and there would still have been no guarentees.

17 posted on 09/02/2005 6:39:49 AM PDT by Always Right
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To: ClearCase_guy

I think what it basically boils down to is that people, including Democrats, expect Democrats to be incompetent and they expect Republicans to step in and clean up the mess.


18 posted on 09/02/2005 6:41:43 AM PDT by libsl (I'm just sayin'....)
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To: conservativecorner
The warnings were all but ignored by the federal government, which failed repeatedly to fund needed improvements, USA Today reports.

Lots of blame in this article, but no mention of how much it would cost to build the infrastructure required to protect all coastal cities in the country from category 5 hurricanes.

That's because the cost would be astronomical. Even channeling the entire productive capacity of the country to this endeavour alone would be inadequate.

There is no way to make the universe a completely safe place. There just isn't.

19 posted on 09/02/2005 6:44:55 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Islam Factoid:After forcing young girls to watch his men execute their fathers, Muhammad raped them.)
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To: conservativecorner

I studied this issue/problem in my geology class in collage back in 1986. So clearly, this is Bush's fault.


20 posted on 09/02/2005 6:46:25 AM PDT by 11th Commandment
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