Patterico's Pontifications

9/4/2005

You Say Upgraded, I Say Not Upgraded . . . Potato, Potahto

Filed under: Current Events,Dog Trainer — Patterico @ 9:15 am



I am having a hard time reconciling this, from today’s L.A. Times:

Corps officials said the floodwaters breached at two spots: the 17th Street Canal Levee and the London Avenue Canal Levee. Connie Gillette, a Corps spokeswoman, said Saturday there never had been any plans or funds allocated to shore up those spots — another sign the government expected them to hold.

with this, from Thursday’s New York Times:

The 17th Street levee that gave way and led to the flooding of New Orleans was part of an intricate, aging system of barriers and pumps that was so chronically underfinanced that senior regional officials of the Army Corps of Engineers complained about it publicly for years.

. . . .

No one expected [the] weak spot to be on a canal that, if anything, had received more attention and shoring up than many other spots in the region. It did not have broad berms, but it did have strong concrete walls.

Shea Penland, director of the Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of New Orleans, said that was particularly surprising because the break was “along a section that was just upgraded.”

“It did not have an earthen levee,” Dr. Penland said. “It had a vertical concrete wall several feel thick.”

Either Connie Gillette and Shea Penland need to meet and get their stories straight, or the L.A. Times isn’t giving us the full story. I’m going to see if I can get in touch with Connie Gillette to see which it is.

UPDATE: I tried calling Ms. Gillette but she wasn’t in. I have sent her an e-mail. Assuming she responds and gives me permission to quote her, I’ll let you know what she says — either way it cuts.

UPDATE x2: Ms. Gillette has responded to my e-mail and says she will get back to me. Meanwhile, note the way the L.A. Times looks only at requests for funding made during Bush’s watch, and ignores similar behavior by Clinton, as documented here.

9 Responses to “You Say Upgraded, I Say Not Upgraded . . . Potato, Potahto”

  1. I think instead of the levees we should be looking at how FEMA has been ‘upgraded.’

    actus (5b2f21)

  2. The question has never been if New Orleans would flood, but when, and everybody knew it. Work on seawalls and levees has been ongoing since the last big flood in 1927. There are always new planning efforts and repairs scheduled far in advance. The levee system is a dynamic effort and must be maintained constantly.

    In this case, a concrete sea wall was constructed on top of an earthen levee. When surge waters in the Lake rose to the level they cascaded over the sea wall, and fell as from a waterfall, part of the levee below began to wash out, and thus support for the sea wall was undermined. Eventually support washed away to the extent it could no longer stand. When it failed, waters from Lake Pontchartrain were able to flood the city…

    Black Jack (ee3eb6)

  3. Indeed, the 17th Street Canal breach in particular was rather shocking. While this was a known weak spot in the New Orleans levee system because of the possibility of the wind pushing water up into the canal and causing the canal to be overtopped(the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported on it three years ago), a contractor had recently finished major renovations to it that were finished just this summer. This was just a case of where the storm surge was too high and undercut the levee as explained above. It had nothing to do with George W. Bush or a Republican Congress or Bill Clinton’s penis.

    That said, the lack of inspection of a known weak spot in the levee system in the aftermath of the storm allowed the breach to grow and widen to the point where the storm pumps were overwhelmed. Note that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for this particular piece of waterworks. Where were they on Monday when they should have been inspecting the levees?!

    BadTux (5036d0)

  4. The cost of rebuilding is far too great. See I’m joining the left

    pbswatcher (510a15)

  5. Why is there a 17th Steet Canal? Why are there any canals flowing through the City? These are the questions that havn’t been addressed. These canals require protection by many miles of vulnerable levees along their banks, creating many weaknesses in the flood protection system. What if the canals had been cutoff with a levee at the Lake shoreline, and filled in. There are several floodways to the east, away from the population centers, that serve as an outlet for the Lake. Cutting off all canals through the City, and fortifying the floodways seems like a basic common sense plan that was not considered.

    Joe David (e088d4)

  6. As I stated in another post in regard to the failure of the levees in new Orleans, responsible in large part for most of the deaths and devastation, left behind by Katrina in its wake, it is pertinent to level a charge against the “Political Leadership” of this Country, from Jimmy Carter down to our current President, and all the other Senators, Congressmen (sorry not feeling “politically correct” today) Governors, and State Assemblies from hence, is their blind refusal to have upgraded those Levees, made to withstand class 3 hurricanes, to be able to withstand class 5, and 6 hurricanes ( as some we have experienced in our recent past), because of the cost, some estimated 20 billion dollars, knowing full well the consequences in case of more violent storms as had been consistently predicted by scientists since God knows when, while wasting so many “hundreds of billions of dollars,” on so much “pork” throughout the intervening years; which have resulted in the massive destruction of a city, the death of thousands, and the up-rooting of half a million people!

    All of these aforementioned politicians share in the burden, and the responsibility for all the senseless deaths, the unthinkable destruction, and the havoc their lack of “foresight,” and their petty “miserliness” have caused to the five hundred thousand victims of their shortsightedness, and banality!

    Let us hope that those bodies “putrefying,” lying there by the side of our roads, and our buildings, unattended, have not come to lay there in “vain,” nor the lives they once held “sacrificed” to no purpose, and that this serves as a warning to be very much “heeded,” so that in the difficult times we live in, such tragedies never again occur!

    Althor

    Althor (ee3eb6)

  7. The destruction of New Orleans occurred because the city was built on a flood plain. As the city grew over the years, efforts to protect it from flood water also grew and developed. But, no system of levees and sea walls can ever be expected to withstand the most severe forces of Mother Nature. New Orleans was always living on borrowed time, that and hopes and prayers.

    Faced with a cat4 storm, all that really could have been done was to get people out of harm’s way. However, the Mayor of NO and the Governor of Louisiana failed to follow the most basic evacuation plans. In the Blame Game, those two are “It.” And, the blood is on their hands.

    Black Jack (ee3eb6)

  8. Here’s the Corps of Engineers website on Katrina and the levees:

    http://www.mvd.usace.army.mil/hurricane/chr.php

    They too were evacuated out of the city than had a hard time getting people and inspectors back in. The land routes were flooded and the water lanes blocked with debris. Helicopters were prioritized to rescue.

    Eventually, they found that they couldn’t stop the waterfall over the levee and had to wait until the levels equilized and the flow stopped to begin repairs.

    Imagine the frustration of the engineers watching the city flood through a levee and knowing there is nothing they can do.

    Whitehall (de745f)

  9. One in the series of unfortunate events which have culminated in the lack of prevention, and the inadequate response on part of our Government to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, especially in New Orleans, can be said to be the media’s failure to have brought this imminent danger we have faced for years, forcefully to the forefront of their coverage and our attention, while always focusing instead on what they “euphemistically” like to call “human interest stories,” ignoring, or glossing over far more impacting news, and issues affecting all of our lives in the process. It just so happens that the Natalee Holloway coverage has been the latest, and more “glaring” example of this practice.

    If during the last three months more attention had been paid by the media to our “state of preparedness” in case of a major category #5 hurricane hitting New Orleans, which in the face of all the scientific predictions, the changing global weather patterns, and the incidence of four major hurricanes having hit Florida during the last hurricane season, was a very real and eminent threat (as proven by the consequent tragic events), and they would have brought to the “focus” of the public and the politicians, the urgency of taking “preventive measures,” perhaps events would not have unfolded as they have, and many unnecessary deaths could have been avoided!

    Had there been sufficient “public awareness” of the “dangers,” perhaps public pressure would have elicited a reaction from the Government and its agencies to have acted preemptively.

    Had the levees been shored-up at the more vulnerable spots along the banks with sandbags similar to those being dropped now by helicopters to close the breaches; ironically, maybe some of those “fateful” breaks could have been averted!

    But instead, the media chose out of no greater “altruistic” motives than “ratings” to “focus” on the Natalee Holloway “melodrama” at the expense of moving its “attention” away from, and ignoring, or down-playing other news events and issues with far more impact and implications, affecting all of our lives, as sadly proven by their failure to have adequately exposed the impending doom that awaited us in New Orleans, while they “dilly dallied” in Aruba about Beth, and Natalee!

    The media was too busy running after Beth and her cronies, always following their latest “antics” around the island with their “ubiquitous” cameras, redundantly interviewing Beth and other members of the “clan” throughout two hour blocks of prime time coverage each night: all of them spinning the same old baseless allegations, unfounded rumors, and vicious innuendos they had been hashing and rehashing day after day for three months, and hailing every bit of garbage found in Aruba a “crucial piece of evidence that will break the case” which later would inevitably turn out to be nothing more nor less than just another piece of “garbage” as it was with the “missing shoe,” the “hair on the tape,” and “belt” fiascos, to have been able to address the “real” issues, or focused on the news that mattered!!!

    As much as we may empathize with Beth and her family, the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, just as that of countless others which have been ignored by the media, is basically a family tragedy, and though we may personally sympathize with them, and offer them all our support and backing, it ought not to be the “overriding” concern of the whole Nation in such perilous, and critical times as we are presently facing.

    That Beth would avail herself of all the means at her disposal, and “court” the media’s attention to keep the “limelight” on her plight is understandable. However the media has the obligation to approach each “reportage” with objectivity, impartiality, and journalistic integrity, and not engage in all the relentless “media extravaganza” coverage it has so blatantly lavished on this case. But then I’m sure many will say, “apropos”, that is only “wishful thinking on my part!

    As to the authorities’ lack of prompt response to the catastrophe, I must say that although I am a Conservative, and an a supporter of President Bush and his policies, the apparent monumental failure on the part of the Department of Homeland Security, and other Federal Authorities to react promptly to this calamity, and their inability to function because of “legal technicalities” in the chain of command which did not allow them to quickly respond, are simply appalling, and denote an alarming window of vulnerability in our National Security!

    What if the levees had been breached not by a hurricane, but by a terrorist’s “thermonuclear device,” and the Government’s response would have been similar in “pace” to this one? The consequent flooding would have been the same, basically the same scenario would have ensued with rescuers unable to reach victims due to the rising waters for days, the people would have been stranded just as they were now throughout the city unable to flee, and most other aspects would have been the same, except the monstrous difference that lethal amounts of “radiation” would have been allowed to contaminate and spread to almost one third of our Nation: the lower Mississippi River basin, the waters of the Gulf and all of our coasts bordering on it, and all those hundreds of thousands of victims that would have waded blissfully ignorant through those contaminated waters would have been contaminated as well and most would die as a result!!! Can we ever allow that to happen???

    Many will play the “Shift the Blame Game” now since apparently it was the lack of action of Governor Blanco, and “issues of communication” between her office, and that of the Mayor of New Orleans, which apparently “impeded” Federal action to proceed sooner, due, of all things, to “legal protocols” relating to the powers of the States vs. that of the Federal Government or some other “taurine feces” legal intricacy of that nature, such as that of needing to have a request from the Governor of the State before the President could order the National Guard in, for example!

    But I find it absurd, and immoral, that in the face of the magnitude of the cataclysm, “legal subtleties” were being “observed” by all the parties involved, and nothing was done for days while people died, their corpses left decaying by the side of our roadways, while we waited on Governor Blanco?!?!

    What, unless the Governor gave the President permission we would have been invading ourselves??? So be it!!!

    I understand that had President Bush sent the National Guard in without the Governor’s “formal” request for them, he, “technically” could be “impeached” for his actions, which would be considered to be in violation of the State Rights he has sworn to uphold under the Constitution, something his critics: Kennedy, Dean, Kerry, Boxer, Reid and their ilk, would have been only too “elated” to comply to do, even before the waters had receded from the “Big Easy.”

    But regardless, had I been in the President’s place, I would have ordered the Guard in, and damn the impeachment and the critics! Enough time to deal with Governor Blanco (who is by the way a Democrat), and clean up the “diarrhea” running down her legs due to her “paralyzing fear to act,” and put “Pampers” on her later!
    Had the “liberal” Courts objected, the hell with them! As Andrew Jackson once said under similar judicial circumstances let them go and “enforce” their dictums themselves!

    I would have liked to see some of our more “liberal,” “left-leaning” Justices straggling in the bad weather with their black robes flapping like the wings of vultures in the rain, trying to stop the Army from aiding the victims, waving a soaked piece of paper in their hands from their “exalted” Benches!!!

    Our people come first, and our Army ought to have been there from day one, and let all those who would have “censured” it for whatever breach of protocol, legal or otherwise, go engage in an act of procreation of the species with themselves!!!

    Althor

    Althor (ee3eb6)


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