The Levees in New Orleans.

[OnlineStageGear]

Hmm, seems a little fact checking is in order on why the levee was never improved.

Neither the administration or its critics are saying this, but one reason anti-flooding measures failed to stop Katrina from inundating New Orleans is that some environmental groups successfully resisted new flood control projects. The Sierra Club and other groups sued the Army Corps of Engineers to stop a 1996 plan to raise and fortify Mississippi River levees because the plan would jeopardize Louisiana forests.

And the New Orleans Times-Picayune has reported that "Save our Wetlands" successfully sued the corps of engineers three decades ago to stop construction on floodgates to block storm surges from the Gulf of Mexico into Lake Pontchatrain (search), saying they were too damaging to the lake's eco-system.

Democrats, and some former government engineers, blamed President Bush for cutting the budget for the Army Corps of Engineers, claiming the cuts left New Orleans unprepared for a major storm.

But The Washington Post reports the Bush administration has granted the corps more funding than the previous administration over a similar period and that Louisiana has received far more money for civil works projects than any other state. The paper says much of the funding has been spent not on flood control, but on lawmakers' pet construction projects, including a brand new $750 million canal lock in New Orleans unrelated to flood control.

Matt

[Bengal65]

Re: The Levees in New Orleans.

Hmm, there is going to be a lot of political "stuff" coming out of this. I'm sure there were many attempts to fix what needed fixing and it went by the wayside.

[MBreinin]

Re: The Levees in New Orleans.

Dude, you don't know that half of it.

There is a Levee Board in New Orleans. The board itself has voted down improvements. Referendums have bene put in front of the voting public and voted down.

It IS a fact that Bush cut the SELA program and diverted the funds to his pet wars. However, even if he hadn't, it would not have saved New Orleans. They have been building the levees for 30 years, 30 years. Now, they are going to have to rethink the entire system.

Mike

[GodOfRhythm]

Re: The Levees in New Orleans.

No Levee or dam in the world will save you from mother nature, this is a fact.

Look at Holland, they're the world's leading experts and our close northern neighbours, but even they know it's just living on lent time.

[txcharvel]

Re: The Levees in New Orleans.

My degree is in Hydrology and Water Resource Engineering. NOLA is a hydrologists dream as far as the resources and engineering behind keeping that city dry. NO exists because the Corps of Engineers have protected the city with the most advanced levee system in the country, perhaps the world.

Water is the most powerful force in nature. It was only a matter of time before the water had it's way. No amount of money or technology could have saved NO. Even if the levees would have survived this storm, there would be another.

This tragedy was inevitable, we just happened to be the generation to witness it.

[Shawn Lutz]

Re: The Levees in New Orleans.

If they don't improve the levees to be capable to withstand a category 4-5 storm it won't matter. New Orleans will get hit again, chances are within 100 years New Orleans may not exist at all [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] As cool of a city as New Orleans is it doesn't make sense to spend billions upon billions rebuilding it more than once in a century.

[MBreinin]

Re: The Levees in New Orleans.

[ QUOTE ]
If they don't improve the levees to be capable to withstand a category 4-5 storm it won't matter. New Orleans will get hit again, chances are within 100 years New Orleans may not exist at all [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] As cool of a city as New Orleans is it doesn't make sense to spend billions upon billions rebuilding it more than once in a century.

[/ QUOTE ]

Except for the fact that it is the nation's largest and most important port. Except for the fact that it is surrounded by industry and countless oil refineries. Except for the fact that it has given the United States its only indigenous forms of cuisine and music.

If you enjoyed your coffee this morning, it came through New Orleans. If you look around your surroundings, within 5 feet there is something, if not dozens of things, that came through New Orleans.

Mike

[Top Jimmy B]

Re: The Levees in New Orleans.

I know the penicillin in my medicine cabinet is the result of a chick from New Orleans. Your theory withstands my scrutiny. lol

[txcharvel]

Re: The Levees in New Orleans.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
If they don't improve the levees to be capable to withstand a category 4-5 storm it won't matter. New Orleans will get hit again, chances are within 100 years New Orleans may not exist at all [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] As cool of a city as New Orleans is it doesn't make sense to spend billions upon billions rebuilding it more than once in a century.

[/ QUOTE ]

Except for the fact that it is the nation's largest and most important port. Except for the fact that it is surrounded by industry and countless oil refineries. Except for the fact that it has given the United States its only indigenous forms of cuisine and music.

If you enjoyed your coffee this morning, it came through New Orleans. If you look around your surroundings, within 5 feet there is something, if not dozens of things, that came through New Orleans.

Mike

[/ QUOTE ]

This is why the Corps of Engineers have spent so much money on NOLA. Without the Corps, the Port of NO would not exist. Barges coming down the Mississippi carrying crops that literally feed the world would have no place to go.

I'm not saying it's not worth it, I'm just saying it was inevitable that the system would fail.

[fett]

Re: The Levees in New Orleans.

[ QUOTE ]
No Levee or dam in the world will save you from mother nature, this is a fact.

Look at Holland, they're the world's leading experts and our close northern neighbours, but even they know it's just living on lent time.

[/ QUOTE ] I was listening to the news and they said the low land levees were not breached. It was a 20 foot wave that just washed over the levee. You wouldn't be able to bulid it that high. He sais it was like a tsunmai wave. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[Tekky]

Re: The Levees in New Orleans.

[ QUOTE ]
If they don't improve the levees to be capable to withstand a category 4-5 storm it won't matter. New Orleans will get hit again, chances are within 100 years New Orleans may not exist at all [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] As cool of a city as New Orleans is it doesn't make sense to spend billions upon billions rebuilding it more than once in a century.

[/ QUOTE ]

+1

[YetAnotherOne]

Re: The Levees in New Orleans.

[ QUOTE ]
Except for the fact that it is the nation's largest and most important port. Except for the fact that it is surrounded by industry and countless oil refineries.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep, if the port of New Orleans isn't irreplaceable it's the next thing to it. It's one of the busiest ports in the world and a critical center for oil imports and agricultural exports. A good bit of the oil used in the US comes in through New Orleans and is refined by refineries in the region and a good bit of the world's food supply travels down the Mississippi on barges and departs for destinations worldwide from New Orleans. You can't relocate midwestern farms and since environmentalists have blocked every attempt at constructing new refineries in this country since 1976 (we've not constructed a new petroleum refinery in the US since then) it's unlikely that the petroleum industry infrastructure could be relocated either.

[fett]

Re: The Levees in New Orleans.

The pricetag is up to $125 Billion. Just hear that.

[fett]

Re: The Levees in New Orleans.

The port has no electricity or diesel fuel. That appears to be all they need to open up. I am listening to CNBC as I type.

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: The Levees in New Orleans.

I recently saw a discovery show that displayed how although the levy system saves NO from immediate flooding threats, it is also the cause of the rivers not replenishing the silt that actually is what the whole place is built on. And this stuff hasn't been replenished since the levys were really constructed in the early 1900s.

As the rivers overflow, and deposit silt all around them, it builds the land up, and with out it, the land erodes to the ocean and they are losing wetlands and much of the shore at some amazing pace, like 25 sq miles a day I think they said. These wetlands are the buffer between the sea and the land basically and provide some amount of protection from these storm surges, but they are going away fast because the levy's keeps the rivers from naturally rebuildng the land through flooding the place and depositing silt...

Sounds like they need to NOT live there and let the rivers have at it...

Maybe they are planning for no one to live there and let the industry have at it..