I know what's at stake here, but I have big problems with using this barge photo the way you all are suggesting.
The barge is in the neighborhood up next to a house, right?
The levee is broken nearby, right?
But the water is flowing OUT of the neighborhood.
That area filled up as the storm passed, because its seawall and the one from East Orleans Parish (or St. Bernard Parish, if the image is from East Orleans) form a big V pointed right into the storm surge.
If the barge was in the canal, into which the flooded neighborhood is spilling, how could it break the levee and then flow UPSTREAM into the neighborhood?
If the barge was at sea or in the Intercoastal Waterway and the surge pushed it into the neighborhood, and then it broke the levee from the inside, how come it didn't flow out with the flood waters?
Ok, you can see that the seawall is down, and that silt from inside the seawall has built up at the breach, so maybe the barge was inside, and maybe it cracked the wall, and maybe the broken wall prevented it from escaping with the flood waters, but you really want to be sure of what your claim is before you go using this image to "prove" anything, or else the other side is going to pick their time and blow you out of the water.
Once you lose credibility on an issue, it is very difficult to get it back, sort of a momentum/herd mentality thing.
Your post about the barge
I saw a film of Chalmette done by locals on tv last night. And there was that barge! And the big broken levee. The local said that barge appeared to break a concrete levee. It was near the lock in Chalmette. I don't know the area at all but it looked as if the barge made St Bernard flood.
Anyone know the area?