Why New Orleans Flooded

Newsmax ^ | Sept 13, 2005 | Phil Brennan

[Bob]

There were reports out of New Orleans that local authorities intentionally blew up a section of the levee to save the French Quarter and homes in wealthy neighborhoods. One must believe the witnesses who were there and heard the blast.

So we're supposed to just accept these 'reports' as true?

The mayor said there would be 10,000 dead. It was 'reported'. That didn't make it true.

Someone said that cannibalism was occurring within days of the flooding. It was 'reported'. That didn't make it true.

Sorry, it's going to take a bit more than anonymous 'reports' to convince me that it happened.

[Nov3]

I doubt that it was a question of "properly secured".

You and I may see that, but I doubt a lawyer would agree with that.

[jeffers]

Yeah, they heard a blast all right.

Hundred or thousand ton barges don't pierce 200 feet of yards thick concrete quietly.

The NWS released a Flood Warning at 0814 Monday morning as Katrina came ashore, noting the report that a barge had breached a levee.

The Kenner cops closed shop and hunkered down at 0400 that same morning, for the simple reason that human beings don't walk around in hundred and forty mile an hour winds.

They fly.

I've been very close to loosing my footing at winds below 70 mph, propped up on crampons and a pair of ski poles and braced.

Any demolition teams that were out between 0700 and 0900 Monday morning fooling around with the levees are now in northern Mississippi, impaled on trees.

[Wonder Warthog]

"You and I may see that, but I doubt a lawyer would agree with that."

Proper language, please!!! The proper terminology for this type of legal professional would be either "shyster" or "ambulance chaser"---not "lawyer".

[Elyse]

I think people that say it was blown up and people that say a barge hit it don't really know what they heck they are talking about. If you look at the pictures of the 17th street canal you can see the plates look like they just folded down.

The levee itself is earthen. The plates sit on the eathen levee. When the water pressure weakened the earthen levee it sagged, the plates above it loosened at the seams and folded down. The levee was made to withstand a cat 3 storm. The amount of water that came in with the cat 4/5 was just too much pressure on the earthen part of the levee.

[Van Jenerette]

...reading.

[handy]

This story is way too long and complex, let's just keep blaming Bush.

[lastchance]

Pinky the Brain wants to see you in his top secret chamber RIGHT NOW.

[lugsoul]

No, this is misdirection. The lock (the subject of the project in question) did not fail. If it had, the Mississippi River would have been pouring into the city, and the flooding would have been much, much worse.

[Wonder Warthog]

"The lock (the subject of the project in question) did not fail. If it had, the Mississippi River would have been pouring into the city, and the flooding would have been much, much worse."

I don't see where the article says (or even implies) that the lock failed---it just says that it was an antique, and needed to be replaced.

[lugsoul]

Correct. But it implies that the efforts of Ninth Ward residents to stop the lock project through litigation somehow led to the flooding - and many FReepers are reading that conclusion directly.

And my statement was that the lock, i.e. the subject of the project stopped by litigation, did not fail and had nothing to do with the flooding.

[UCANSEE2]

that local authorities intentionally blew up a section of the levee to save the French Quarter and homes in wealthy neighborhoods.

You mean one of those highly skilled and totally devoted members of the NOPD?

Or Nagin?

Yeah, it takes months to plan, hundreds of men and man hours, plus dyanamite that is not wet, just to demolish a building.

Without knowing that they were being deluged by a triangle of wave fronts, how would blowing a levee anywhere possibly save anything?

[Wonder Warthog]

"Correct. But it implies that the efforts of Ninth Ward residents to stop the lock project through litigation somehow led to the flooding - and many FReepers are reading that conclusion directly."

As I understood it, the project was for lock AND levee improvments, and that "noise complaints" prevented both.

[lugsoul]

The article does not say that.

[johnb838]

Some say the barge was filled with dyno-miiiite!

[dixiechick2000]

"Vital repairs for which a whopping $600 million had been appropriated by the federal government were stopped after residents of the Ninth Ward complained about the noise created by the repair project and sued to halt it."



That, and they found "other" uses for the money.

[johnb838]

One must believe the witnesses who were there and heard the blast.

I haven't actually heard any witnesses who were there and heard the blast. Only FOAF, aka hearsay testimony quoted by people like Louis Farrakhan.

[johnb838]

Logic and reason are tools of the white oppressor. Truth is whatever you can get the other guy to believe.

[ex-Texan]

One was a caller on Coast2Coast with George Noorey several nights ago. She was highly irate with 'mayor Nagin' and the 'governor.' Repeatedly she said the city and state were corrupt and elected officials were rotten to the core. She was praising U.S. relief efforts. She condemned using swat teams to forcibly remove older people who had weathered Katrina. Also, she was pissed about the 'mayor' confiscating registered hand guns from innocent victims.

[Fred Nerks]

thanks for the ping. 'Sometimes Sh%t Happens' TWICE! Who knows when the next hurricane might hit? How prepared are the local authorities should it happen again? Why are people allowed to return to an unsafe situation? And what tourist in his/her right mind would go to NO...so many questions, so few answers...