Free Republic

Just heard that SeeBS is going to tell America on '60 Minutes' WHY the levees failed in New Orleans. This ought to be interesting. I wonder how they are going to treat this story.Here's hoping that all here who see this thread and then see the show will give us your impression of the SeeBS presentation.Will it be a Bush smackdown......... or what?

NYT - "Anyone who cares about responsible budgeting and the health of America's rivers and wetlands should pay attention to a bill now before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. The bill would shovel $17 billion at the Army Corps of Engineers for flood control and other water-related projects -- this at a time when President Bush is asking for major cuts in Medicaid and other important domestic programs. Among these projects is a $2.7 billion boondoggle on the Mississippi River that has twice flunked inspection by the National Academy of Sciences."

WASHINGTON — For years, Washington had been warned that doom lurked just beyond the levees. And for years, the White House and Congress had dickered over how much money to put into shoring up century-old dikes and carrying out newer flood control projects to protect the city of New Orleans. As recently as three months ago, the alarms were sounding — and being brushed aside. In late May, the New Orleans district of the Army Corps of Engineers formally notified Washington that hurricane storm surges could knock out two of the big pumping stations that must operate night and day...

It's my recollection that the enviro-fascists have spent the past 40 years blocking the US Army Corps of Engineers from reinforcing the levees in New Orleans. I do not have access to the documentation but clearly remember the more militant tree-huggers trying to defund the Corps of Engineers year after year in order to "save the environment for the lesser tree fart frog" and other such species. Well, we've seen the result of their efforts. Anyone have references to such documentation?

    NYTimes' Editorials About The Corps of Engineers are a bit Dishonest I've been hearing a lot concerning the Army Corps of Engineers and budget cuts that the administration has forced upon them. Yesterday I heard Former Congressman Livingston of Louisiana complain that environmentalists have fought hard to keep all money out of the Corps hands, so I went looking. Yesterday the NYTimes economic (though unqualified) writer Paul Krugman asked: "Second question: Why wasn't more preventive action taken? After 2003 the Army Corps of Engineers sharply slowed its flood-control work, including work on sinking levees. "The corps," an...

New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers faces reductionNew Orleans City Business June 6, 2005 by Deon Roberts In fiscal year 2006, the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is bracing for a record $71.2 million reduction in federal funding. It would be the largest single-year funding loss ever for the New Orleans district, Corps officials said. I've been here over 30 years and I've never seen this level of reduction, said Al Naomi, project manager for the New Orleans district. I think part of the problem is it's not so much the...

PURPOSE. The project is designed to protect residents between Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River levee from surges in Lake Pontchartrain driven by storms up to the Standard Project Hurricane. The SPH is equivalent to a fast-moving Category 3 hurricane.

WHO OR what gets the blame for the levee breaches that wrecked so much of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck? We have heard people point fingers at all of the following: President Bush, global warming, the Iraq war and racism. We are still trying to figure that last one out. The real culprit, however, has been right before our eyes for a long time. The Army Corps of Engineers is in charge of flood control in New Orleans, but state and local officials play important roles in planning and funding too. Engineers as well as local, state and federal...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 2, 2005 – As National Guard vehicles forded floodwaters in downtown New Orleans today delivering critical relief supplies and helping law enforcement officials restore order, workers from the Army Corps of Engineers were focused on draining the city and repairing gaps in its levee system.

Efforts to drain New Orleans hit another snag Friday as the Army Corps of Engineers discovered that it could not buy new pumps to replace those damaged by the flooding. Massive pumps capable of draining the city like those that have been keeping New Orleans dry for decades are no longer made and would have to be specially ordered, a process that would take too long, said Col. Richard Wagenaar, the senior corps official in New Orleans. Instead, repair crews will have to dry out the existing pumps, which could take up to a week, before repairing them with replacement...

Agency felt New Orleans was safe for 200-300 years 02 Sep 2005 21:45:13 GMT Source: Reuters By Will Dunham WASHINGTON, Sept 2 (Reuters) - The Army Corps of Engineers believed the New Orleans levee system would protect the city for 200 or 300 years, but it was not designed to guard against a storm as powerful as Hurricane Katrina that thoroughly overwhelmed it, the head of the agency said on Friday. Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, also said Bush administration funding cuts for the system of levees, floodgates and pumping stations that failed...

KNIGHT RIDDER NEW ORLEANS - Every five minutes or so, an Army Blackhawk helicopter hovered 50 feet above the collapsed 17th Street Canal levee Friday and dropped a 3,000-pound bag of sand. Each one vanished into the water, showing no apparent results. But after several false starts, the Army Corps of Engineers said their levee repair efforts are slowly taking hold. If there is no more rain, the breaches in New Orleans' all-important levees could be closed by Sunday, said engineer Don Basham, chief of the engineering division, from headquarters in Washington. Pumping the water out of the city is...

NEW ORLEANS - Four days after Hurricane Katrina struck, the National Guard arrived in force Friday with food, water and weapons, churning through the floodwaters in a vast truck convoy with orders to retake the streets and bring relief to the suffering. "The cavalry is and will continue to arrive," said one general. The trucks began arriving at the New Orleans Convention Center, where 15,000 to 20,000 hungry and desperate refugees had taken shelter - many of them seething with anger so intense that the place appeared ready to erupt in violence at any moment. For a day or more,...

HURRICANE RESPONSE Corps Officials Say New Orleans' Flood Walls Were in Good Condition Leaders of the Army Corps of Engineers say the city's flood walls were in excellent shape before the storm but weren't designed to handle a hurricane of Katrina's magnitude. In a phone briefing Sept. 1, the Army's Chief of Engineers, Lt. Gen. Carl A. Strock, addressed some of the issues that have surfaced about Corps-built structures around New Orleans. Strock said that the project that resulted in the levees along Lake Pontchartrain was designed to protect against a 200-to-300-year storm, which equates to about a Category 3...

Early questions were raised about proper funding for the Army Corps of Engineers, which is in charge of many hurricane-protection programs across the United States. Some early claims blamed President Bush for cutbacks in funding, but corps officials stated that a decrease in funding was not to blame. The levees themselves were only designed to protect New Orleans from a Category 3 hurricane and that this decision was made by the corps decades ago "based on a cost-benefit analysis." Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, chief of engineers of the corps was quoted as saying, "I don't see that the level of...

Leaders of the Army Corps of Engineers say the city's flood walls were in excellent shape before the storm but weren't designed to handle a hurricane of Katrina's magnitude. In a phone briefing Sept. 1, the Army's Chief of Engineers, Lt. Gen. Carl A. Strock, addressed some of the issues that have surfaced about Corps-built structures around New Orleans. Strock said that the project that resulted in the levees along Lake Pontchartrain was designed to protect against a 200-to-300-year storm, which equates to about a Category 3 hurricane, but Katrina was more severe. Al Naomi, senior project manager in the...

WASHINGTON - The White House scrambled Thursday to defend itself against criticism that it has consistently proposed cutting the budget for Army Corps of Engineers water and flood control projects — including several that could have mitigated the disaster in New Orleans. Just in February, President Bush proposed cutting the Corps' budget by 7 percent. The year before, Bush proposed a 13 percent cut. Both cuts are part of an annual ritual in Washington in which the president shortchanges lawmakers' pet projects, knowing Congress will restore the money later on. On Thursday, however, the Bush White House made available top...

It could take months for maritime commerce in south Louisiana along the Mississippi River to return to pre-Hurricane Katrina levels, said the director of the Port of New Orleans. “In Plaquemines Parish, they can’t even tell where the ship channel was,” said Gary LaGrange, head of the New Orleans port. “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is so busy trying to repair the levees around New Orleans that they can’t release the personnel to go out to Southwest Pass and map the channel.” LaGrange, who was temporarily working out of the Port of West St. Mary Wednesday, said he...

FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas (Army News Service, July 20, 2005) -- Hurricane Emily came ashore July 20 but wasn’t packing the wallop residents and tourists of the South Texas shore area originally expected. While the South Padre Islands still took a beating with high winds and heavy rain, it was not enough of a blow for any of the 126 supply-laden trucks poised at a staging area at Fort Sam Houston to pull out and head south. The trucks, loaded with everything from water and food to cots and generators, packed the field on Wilson Street Sunday night as part...

Nasiriyah, Iraq – Iraq’s clean water supply country-wide has ebbed slowly for decades because of war, an antiquated pipeline network and co-mingling with sewage as a result of illegal line tapping. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region South District is riding the waves of progress to get the people of southern Iraq the clean drinking water they need.In the Thi Qar Province, the $173 million Nasiriyah Water Treatment Plant has two scopes of work: one is to finish the construction on the partially completed plant, and the other is to run water pipeline from Ash Shatrah to Suk...