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New Orleans is sinking into same levee mistakes
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/stories/DN-katfolo_24tex.ART.State.Edition1.4da6617.html ^ | August 24, 2008 | Cain Burdeau

Posted on 08/26/2008 6:30:27 PM PDT by Lorianne

NEW ORLEANS – It looks like history is repeating itself in the Big Easy: People have forgotten what happened after the last hurricane, four decades ago, that caused catastrophic flooding and again believe the federal government is constructing a levee system that will protect them.

In a yearlong review of levee work, The Associated Press tracked a pattern of public misperception, political jockeying and legal fighting, along with economic and engineering miscalculations, that threaten to make New Orleans the scene of another devastating flood.

Interviews with a variety of officials confirmed that many have not learned from mistakes made after Hurricane Betsy in 1965, which set the stage for Hurricane Katrina.

"People forget, but they cannot afford to forget," said Windell Curole, a Louisiana hurricane and levee expert. "If you believe you can't flood, that's when you increase the risk of flooding. In New Orleans, I don't think they talk about the risk."

(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...


TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS: govwatch; gustav; hurricanes; neworleans
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Maybe Gustav will tell ...

Betsy was eerily similar to Katrina. The levees broke. Water reached rooftops and people clung to trees for survival.

In Betsy's aftermath, President Lyndon B. Johnson – like President Bush – pledged to rebuild New Orleans and make it safe from hurricanes. By 1976, though, the Government Accountability Office found the completion date for the work had slipped from 1978 to 1991. Costs had soared to $352 million. By 1982, the GAO said the work would not get done by 2008. Katrina's storm surge laid bare the incomplete and inadequate work after Betsy.

"All the human instincts post-Katrina are the same [as] post-Betsy," said Oliver Houck, a longtime New Orleans resident who participated in many of the rebuilding conflicts since Betsy.

1 posted on 08/26/2008 6:30:28 PM PDT by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne

after january, 2009 they won’t have president bush to blame.


2 posted on 08/26/2008 6:31:13 PM PDT by ken21 (people die and you never hear from them again.)
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To: ken21

Yeah, but he’s still in for this season.
He’s fair game.


3 posted on 08/26/2008 6:32:56 PM PDT by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne

The last big huricaine in New Orleans was forty years ago?


4 posted on 08/26/2008 6:34:28 PM PDT by kitkat (EX DEO LIBERTAS (From God, liberty))
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To: Lorianne
Is NO’s destiny to become another Atlantis a sunken city??

It is impossible to hold back Mother Nature. Mankind has tried for years with no success.

5 posted on 08/26/2008 6:37:51 PM PDT by elpadre (nation)
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To: ken21

IF Osama becomes President, you can be damn sure the media won’t blame him.

IF McCain becomes President, the whining and bitching starts BEFORE the storm hits...


6 posted on 08/26/2008 6:40:10 PM PDT by Levante
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To: kitkat

Betsy was the last big one that went through there before Katrina, although Katrina was only a 2 or 3 while I believe Betsy was stonger.
John


7 posted on 08/26/2008 6:41:31 PM PDT by Diggity
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To: kitkat

Yes, the eye of Katrina came ashore at Bay St. Louis, Mississsippi. New orleans is 70 miles west of where Katrina first came ashore.


8 posted on 08/26/2008 6:42:36 PM PDT by TennTuxedo
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To: Levante

According to NOAA there’s one headed it’s way as we speak. If it does travel all the way to NO there’s a chance it will arrive on the eve of the Republican Convention.


9 posted on 08/26/2008 6:47:23 PM PDT by kempo
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To: Lorianne

Gustav BUMP


10 posted on 08/26/2008 6:48:37 PM PDT by weegee (The higher taxes that Obama demands of Americans are 'Above my Pay Grade'.)
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To: Lorianne

In other words, it was actually Johnson’s fault not Bush’s fault-——————oh wait that can’t happen, Dems are never at fault, no matter how much at fault they are.


11 posted on 08/26/2008 6:51:36 PM PDT by Gabz (You said WHAT?????????)
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To: kempo

I hope it goes out into the Mexican desert and dies there.

I sure hope it doesn’t turn out to be another Katrina...


12 posted on 08/26/2008 6:52:12 PM PDT by Levante
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To: Levante

Maybe they should have made the levees of chocolate.


13 posted on 08/26/2008 7:10:35 PM PDT by Henry Hnyellar
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To: Henry Hnyellar

Nagin,
It’s the right time, NOW, to begin stamping hurricane targets on the foreheads of your remaining citizens including the newly acquired illegals who came to rebuild (Do the jobs Americans won’t do) your city. This time, get off your duff and act like a public official.


14 posted on 08/26/2008 7:16:02 PM PDT by yorkie01
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To: Gabz

Wrong. Bush was born in 1946, so he was on the planet during the Johnson administration, ergo, it was still Bush’s fault.


15 posted on 08/26/2008 7:16:18 PM PDT by Lorianne
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To: TennTuxedo; Diggity

Thanks for the historical update on N.O.’s hurricanes.


16 posted on 08/26/2008 7:18:20 PM PDT by kitkat (EX DEO LIBERTAS (From God, liberty))
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To: Lorianne

Gee, this is such a surpise.

NOT!!!

(In Nawlins, the past is prelude)


17 posted on 08/26/2008 7:27:44 PM PDT by DustyMoment (FloriDUH - proud inventors of pregnant/hanging chads and judicide!!)
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To: Lorianne

This can’t be true!!!! Brad Pitt promised to save NO!!!


18 posted on 08/26/2008 7:45:29 PM PDT by rintense (McCain can pound sand.)
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To: kitkat

If you look at the latest on Gustav they may have a chance to test the levees again next week.


19 posted on 08/26/2008 7:57:58 PM PDT by redangus
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To: redangus

If Gustav is a strong cat 4 or 5 and lands just west of the city, the storm surge will overwhelm everything, including areas that weren’t overrun by Katrina. The surge on the eastern edge of Katrina wiped out the Mississippi coast several miles back from the shore. The levees weren’t designed and/or upgraded to withstand a category 4 or 5 storm.


20 posted on 08/26/2008 8:40:53 PM PDT by CedarDave (Rat party platform: Socialist, pro-abortion, tax everyone, surrender to anyone, sex with anything)
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