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Sorry for the delay, folks. Just got back from dinner.
Posted on 03/03/2006 10:31:24 PM PST by Ellesu
The videotape of Governor Kathleen Blanco telling White House staffers the New Orleans levee had not breached was the talk of the Capitol on Friday. The videotaped, obtained by the Associated Press, was taken hours after the White House received confirmation from the National Weather Service that the levees had breached.
At noon on August 29th, Blanco's voice is heard on the tape telling staffers, "I think we've heard that we have not breached the levees. We have not breached the levees at this point in time." That was the same time Hurricane Katrina was flooding New Orleans East and St. Bernard Parish. A little later on the tape, Blanco said, "...where we have waters that are eight to ten feet deep and we have people swimming in..."
The White House staffers claim the National Weather Service confirmed the levee breaches at 9:12 that morning, three hours before the phone call from Governor Blanco.
Governor Blanco explained Friday that communications were down and it was tough to get any reports confirmed during the worst of the storm. She says the tape shows that she reported what was important, that New Orleans was flooding and that people were in trouble.
"In the middle of a hurricane, it is very difficult to understand exactly what is going on and, you know, I responded to the White House what I knew at the time, but also reassured the nation that things were changing dramatically," Blanco said.
On the tape, Blanco told White House staffers that water was overtopping the levees. Col. Jeff Smith, Louisiana Homeland Security, defended the governor Friday, saying, "It doesn't matter whether or not the water is from an overtopping or whether ot not it's from a breach."
Blanco says what was said then is not as important now as trying to rebuild the Louisiana coast. "A hurricane hit our state of great dimensions. A second one followed behind it and finished off the rest of the coastline. Our work is far too great to sit around and try to kick blame from one corner to another."
Col. Jeff Smith says the office of Homeland Security is working on fixing communication problems between emergency agencies. He's hoping the state gets a $35 million federal grant so all police, fire and EMS radios will be able to communication with each other.
Nice work on your analysis and conclusions. I couldn't agree more. Outstanding! Are you from N'Awlins?
All I would add is this, that the terrain there is very uneven. There are peaks and valleys everywhere, as the city continuously sinks and is built up again over time. So predicting the route of a surge would be difficult. Even from year to year. That may in fact have been a characteristic of the terrain that contributed to the canal levee failures. In any case, your analysis is excellent.
I also agree with your conclusions about what needs to be done as a permanent solution for flood control. I would suggest though, that putting flood gates on those drainage canals would give us the most flood protection bang for the buck. The industrial canal is of course a lot more complicated a situation in that it is a transit canal.
It just so happens that I've just returned from the city tonight to retrieve more personal items from my house. There was a police car sitting in front of my home with two uniformed officers in it. I told the officers that I was going into the house to retrieve my belongings. They said "no problem. go right ahead". I then thanked them for the job they were doing when I left.
Last time I was there moving furniture, we got jumped by a swat team, so it seemed. We had started moving furniture out during the day, and I informed the officer across the street from my house that we would be doing so. But once it got dark, the protocol seems to have changed. They converged on us from every direction. They then checked our Id's and it became friendly. We chatted for a while with the 6 police officers in combat fatigues and we all then went our seperate ways.
Back to my point. I have a lot pictures that I've taken of the area in and around my house. I've also taken pictures of the lake levees and the canal levees to illustrate the considerable difference between them. The major consideration in the design of the canal levees seemed to be economy of space, because they ran through an already heavily developed area. When I post them I'll ping you. I'd like your opinion.
Best regards, S4T.
....Because the city is beneath sea level, all the rain has to be pumped out of the city......
Thank you for your post - must have been a total nightmare!
What I've never understood, is why didn't the pumps work??? Didn't the pumps have a seperate electrical plant source, high above ground, so operating the pumps would not have been dependent on the possibly flooded municipal elrctrical grid.
I also never understood why the hospitals didn't have an emergency generation system located above the levee levels to keep basic operating conditions viable.
Nor, aparrantly did the Superdome have viable emergency power.
I'll never understand??
I'd like to see your pictures. Please do ping me when you post them.
If you haven't seen this yet, there is probably more analysis than you care to read, but knowing where to find it can be useful for reference:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1517817/posts
"I'll never understand??"
Me and you both. >:(
Thanks for the link. I hadn't seen that yet. There are so many articles coming out, it is hard to keep up with the reading.
I'll ping you with the pictures.
LOL. One can't make this stuff up. What is the difference between much of a city being a 5-10 foot deep lake for a couple of weeks or more, at one with Lake Ponchetrain which was temporarily 5 feet above sea level, and some streets getting wet? You be the judge.
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/alexjazar/slideshow?.dir=/57c2&.src=ph
My photos.
Notice the second to last two pictures. Look at the differences in the two levee structures. One worked, the other failed miserably. Those canal flood walls are relatively new. I can remember them being built.
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Sorry for the delay, folks. Just got back from dinner.
Iwas browsing the web and came across your post about the Bohemia Spillway land case. I have been trying to get info on this for so long because my husband's grandfather owns land in the area which was taken from him by the levee board and we wrote to the Clerk of Court in Plaquemines Parish in 1987 to file claim but never heard back from anyone. Can you give me some info to help me on this? My husband died in 2004, and the only family heir is now my son. He is entitled to his family's land back but I am struggling to find out what to do. Can you help me? I would really appreciate it. We've had some real tough years with my husband's death, I've had cancer twice, and my son has also not been well. I'd love to get some good news for a change. Thanks for any help you can give us.
Iwas browsing the web and came across your post about the Bohemia Spillway land case. I have been trying to get info on this for so long because my husband's grandfather owns land in the area which was taken from him by the levee board and we wrote to the Clerk of Court in Plaquemines Parish in 1987 to file claim but never heard back from anyone. Can you give me some info to help me on this? My husband died in 2004, and the only family heir is now my son. He is entitled to his family's land back but I am struggling to find out what to do. Can you help me? I would really appreciate it. We've had some real tough years with my husband's death, I've had cancer twice, and my son has also not been well. I'd love to get some good news for a change. Thanks for any help you can give us.
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