You were horribly misinformed. The US Army Corps of Engineers designs, builds, & contracts all the levees & canal walls. The canal walls that fell apart in 2005 had all been “rebuilt” and “upgraded” by the Corps and its contractors after the year 2000. The Orleans Levee Board was basically in charge of mowing the grass on those levees and flood walls.
The only levees the local levee board ever built were the “lake fill” “super-levees” on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain, none of which spontaneously disintegrated during the Federal Flood.
No, dear boy, YOU are misinformed. The Corps of Engineers had told NO for decades that repairs and upgrades were needed, and when they tried to do so, the locals basically prevented the necessary construction...."too noisy"...."takes up too much land area".....and on and on.
I'm from Louisiana, and grew up surrounded by Corps of Engineers flood control projects (Old River Control Structure, Morganza Floodway, the Mississippi River and Atchafalya levee systems, and much else), so I know precisely what they do. Add to that that one of the head engineers was a family friend. Add to all that that I have family in New Orleans, and thus have "eyewitness" testimony to what went on.
New Orleans screwed itself. Period.
Here is Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution, defining what the Federal Government is authorized to do:
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; — And
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
Conspicuously absent is "Build levees to keep the ocean out of New Orleans".