The Corps of Engineers aren't doing their jobs in New Orleans
By sedel1027
@sedel1027 (17854)
United States
August 25, 2008 10:16am CST
We are in the peak of hurricane season and in yesterday's paper - on the front page no less- was a break down of "how things have changed". Population is down slights, unemployment is down, etc etc. One of the section was about the levees. Get this - All of the levees are at "pre-Katrina" level, only 20% have had work done for the 100 year flood and NONE of them have been improved to the category 5 protection.
Gee, that makes me feel good about my family living in the area! I wonder what these guys have been working on for THREE years!!!
On foxnews today there is a story about "New Orleans Making the same mistake" http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,409445,00.html
An initial September 2010 target to complete the $14.8 billion in post-Katrina work has slipped to mid-2011. Then last September, an Army audit found 84 percent of work behind schedule because of engineering complexities, environmental provisos and real estate transactions. The report added that costs would likely soar. 
Over the last three years the city (and the Mayor is where?) and the Corps of Engineers has done almost nothing to help the area, at all. Yes, some rebuilding has been done, but there are many many many areas that look the same way as they did when the water receded.
Yet, they want people to move on and feel safe......
Over the last three years the city (and the Mayor is where?) and the Corps of Engineers has done almost nothing to help the area, at all. Yes, some rebuilding has been done, but there are many many many areas that look the same way as they did when the water receded.
Yet, they want people to move on and feel safe......1 response
@jonesy123 (3950)
• United States
25 Aug 08
Well, besides financing, manpower, and material delivery problems, they are running into the same problems they ran in before Katrina. Property owners complain about the view obstruction, don't want to give up a portion of their property needed to build a bigger levee or have trees removed to protect or rebuild what's needed. Improvement measures such as flood gates are similarly opposed in order to let water traffic continue unobstructed. And investors are insisting on constructions in areas that should be left alone.
I don't understand why people would build again in areas like the lower 9th. That's just asking for trouble.
We visited New Orleans in 1998. While we loved the city, on the tour we drove along the levees and were told about the material that's in there and how old and sometimes shotty the built was of the levees. This was a regular guided tour on a bus. My husband and I both were amazed that people knowingly lived so close to a potentially major disaster. The water level was higher than the ground the houses were on. That's just asking for trouble. I would never trust a pile of dirt and rubble to protect me from something like that when the normal situation is that just a block away the water is higher than my rooftop. Heck no!
