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 ...
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.
after january, 2009 they won’t have president bush to blame.
Yeah, but he’s still in for this season.
He’s fair game.
The last big huricaine in New Orleans was forty years ago?
It is impossible to hold back Mother Nature. Mankind has tried for years with no success.
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...
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
Yes, the eye of Katrina came ashore at Bay St. Louis, Mississsippi. New orleans is 70 miles west of where Katrina first came ashore.
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.
Gustav BUMP
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.
I hope it goes out into the Mexican desert and dies there.
I sure hope it doesn’t turn out to be another Katrina...
Maybe they should have made the levees of chocolate.
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.
Wrong. Bush was born in 1946, so he was on the planet during the Johnson administration, ergo, it was still Bush’s fault.
Thanks for the historical update on N.O.’s hurricanes.
Gee, this is such a surpise.
NOT!!!
(In Nawlins, the past is prelude)
This can’t be true!!!! Brad Pitt promised to save NO!!!
If you look at the latest on Gustav they may have a chance to test the levees again next week.
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.
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