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Corps of Engineers Ponchartrain Levee
chunkstyle
Member Posts: 2,463 ✭✭✭✭✭
There was a plan to reinforce the Lake Ponchartrain levee, in 2004, by the Corps of Engineers. Unfortunately, the project had to be scaled back by 80%, leaving the weak original levee to be wiped out in this year's storm. Guess where the required money went? That's right, the war in Iraq. All those dead, all that devastation, you now see on TV? = Iraq war casualties. We gained Fallujah, but lost New Orleans.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
~Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here
"Our enemies...never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
~President George W. Bush
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
~Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here
"Our enemies...never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
~President George W. Bush
Comments
Lord Lowrider the Loquacious.
Member:Secret Select Society of Suave Stylish Smoking Jackets
She was only a fisherman's daughter,
But when she saw my rod she reeled.
Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
-Benjamin Franklin
Thats the dumbest thing I have read all day.
Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
-Benjamin Franklin
Got to agree with Mr. PP - but a question chunky - why didnn't the city of New Orleans or the state of Louisianna reinforce the levee? Why should federal tax dollars be used for a local project?
NRA ENdowment, CRPA Life, Past President NRA Members Council
Quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem. Semper Fidelis
Now "search and rescue" is "bag and tag"....
If at first you don't succeed, don't try sky-diving....
make zoning laws for cities, Counties, or states? Any damn fool wishing to live on the coast, below sealevel with a dirt dike protecting them
has a low I.Q. as shown in the looting pics on TV. Far as I know, the only thing required for insurance is flood plain insurance. (if that) And it sure is one big flood plain. Always was, and if rebuilt will still be. Kinda reminds me of keeping ones head in the tigers mouth and
hoping for the best.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
~Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here
"Our enemies...never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
~President George W. Bush
I heard the FEMA rep this mornig complaining about the disorganization of rescue effort vs. levee reinforcing. "Too many cooks in the kitchen..." were his words.
That was the Mayor of New Orleans that said that, and he was talking about repair efforts on the levee taking so long.
I didn't even mention the name of the President...
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
~Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here
"Our enemies...never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
~President George W. Bush
You didn't have to, we knew exactly where you were coming from. The same schuck and jive BS has been on CNN nonstop, all day now from folks like you.
I'm not saying the President concocted any storm, don't be stupid, Lowrider.
All the listings here had links, but they have been de-linked today...
Anyway, here is the source, admin:
http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/pd/projsasp/mainlist.asp
To answer Shootist's question, the USACE has controlled the construction in the entire Mississippi Valley (and all other navigable waters) for ages, it is one of their core functions.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
~Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here
"Our enemies...never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
~President George W. Bush
Thanks for giving yourself away.
"The system is in great shape, but the levees are sinking. Everything is sinking, and if we don't get the money fast enough to raise them, then we can't stay ahead of the settlement," he said. "The problem that we have isn't that the levee is low, but that the federal funds have dried up so that we can't raise them."
N.O. Times-Picayune, June 18, 2004.
"It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."
-Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, in article dated June 8, 2004, N.O. Times-Picayune
The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history. Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office there imposed a hiring freeze. Officials said that money targeted for the SELA project was not enough to start any new jobs.
Again:
"That second study would take about four years to complete and would cost about $4 million, said Army Corps of Engineers project manager Al Naomi. About $300,000 in federal money was proposed for the 2005 fiscal-year budget, and the state had agreed to match that amount. But the cost of the Iraq war forced the Bush administration to order the New Orleans district office not to begin any new studies, and the 2005 budget no longer includes the needed money, he said."
N.O. Times-Picayune, Sept. 22, 2004.
The Newhouse News Service article published Tuesday night observed, "The Louisiana congressional delegation urged Congress earlier this year to dedicate a stream of federal money to Louisiana's coast, only to be opposed by the White House. ... In its budget, the Bush administration proposed a significant reduction in funding for southeast Louisiana's chief hurricane protection project. Bush proposed $10.4 million, a sixth of what local officials say they need." Local officials are now saying, the article reported, that had Washington heeded their warnings about the dire need for hurricane protection, including building up levees and repairing barrier islands, "the damage might not have been nearly as bad as it turned out to be."
Is that enough sources?
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
~Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here
"Our enemies...never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
~President George W. Bush
Isn't it interesting how when you see white people on the news looking through the rubble, the commentary is that they are "finding" things, while when the people are black, they are "looting"? Nothing changes in the Crescent City.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
~Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here
"Our enemies...never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
~President George W. Bush
I don't see anything in any of those quotes to indicate that the city or the state of Louisiana could not have forked up the money. They (New Orleans and Lousiana) blew it, not GW Bush.
Excuse me for not caring to spend my federal tax dollars building levees to help people live where any sane person wouldn't live. If New Orleans needs levees to stay dry then New Orleans residents should pay for said levees.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
~Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here
"Our enemies...never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
~President George W. Bush
Former Member U.S. Navy Shooting Team
Former NSSA All American
Navy Distinguished Pistol Shot
MO, CT, VA.
Those devious b'stards.[}:)]
I am not a number I am a free man
remind me when a design my next city, to ensure its 10 ft below sea level and at the mouth of a large river and between a lake. and remind me not to complain when it gets wiped out. [8]
You do realize, N.O. is there for a reason? The presence of the river and lake make it one of the best harbors in the world. It's the world #1 in shipment of grain, and the US #2 for fuels. Then there's the fact that it's a huge petroleum center. All those people don't live there because it's below sea level, they live there in spite of it.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
~Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here
"Our enemies...never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
~President George W. Bush
If at first you don't succeed, don't try sky-diving....
If at first you don't succeed, don't try sky-diving....
NO MORE MARDI GRA!!!!! NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
The magnitude of this storm made it almost impossible to save the city. All that is left to do now is to pray for those lost souls and to help put things back together.
"Muslims are the first victims of Islam. Many times I have observed in my travels in the Orient, that fanatacism comes from a small number of dangerous men who maintain the others in the practice of religion by terror. To liberate a Muslim from his religion is the best service one can render him."
-E. Renan
Will never think Led Zeppelin song, "When the Levee Breaks" is quite so cool again....
If at first you don't succeed, don't try sky-diving....
Same with 'New Orleans is Sinking' by the Tragically Hip.[V]
99% of all lawyers make the rest look bad.
So explain to me, chunkstyle, why New Orleans and the State of Louisiana didn't fork over the money to fix the levees? Or did the city collectively choose to commit suicide?
Actually, they did come up with the needed matching funds. But the Feds yanked back their promised share.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
~Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here
"Our enemies...never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
~President George W. Bush
Lord Lowrider the Loquacious.
Member:Secret Select Society of Suave Stylish Smoking Jackets
She was only a fisherman's daughter,
But when she saw my rod she reeled.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
Blaming Bush for not holding off mother nature is a joke.[:(!]
"Muslims are the first victims of Islam. Many times I have observed in my travels in the Orient, that fanatacism comes from a small number of dangerous men who maintain the others in the practice of religion by terror. To liberate a Muslim from his religion is the best service one can render him."
-E. Renan
Hunt with your son today instead of hunting for him tomorrow.
The levees were built to withstand only a Category 3 storm, something projections suggested would strike New Orleans only once every two or three centuries, the commander of the corps, Lt. Gen. Carl A. Strock, told reporters in a conference call. Katrina was a Category 4 storm.
Strock said that the levee system's design was settled on a quarter of a century ago, before the current numerical system of classifying storms was in widespread use. He said that studies had begun recently on strengthening the system to protect against Category 4 and 5 hurricanes, but hadn't progressed very far.
Strock added that despite a May report by the Corps' Louisiana district that a lack of federal funding had slowed construction of hurricane protection, nothing the Corps could have done recently would have prevented Katrina from flooding New Orleans.
"The levee projects that failed were at full project design and were not really going to be improved," Strock said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/krwashbureau/20050902/ts_krwashbureau/_wea_katrina_levee
The reason I ask is that the coastal states pay the largest percentage of the Federal taxes supplying the federal budget for the whole nation, not just their state. I live in MA and my dollars do not all come back to me. I'm paying for some other American's highway to be maintained and that's the way things work.
You can all scream BS at Chunk all you want but deep down you know you're wrong. Among the moronic looters in the Gulf, there are good honest Americans dying. Kids, pregnant women, elderly, etc. The first food drops happened today...4 days after the storm. The Bush administration was asleep at the wheel...again.
The levee should have been sured up and the relief effort should have been a hell of a lot more effective up to this point.
Indeed it has been for some time - but it should not be!
NRA ENdowment, CRPA Life, Past President NRA Members Council
Quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem. Semper Fidelis
We gained Fallujah, but lost New Orleans.now if we could just do that with new york and ca.
"When you choose the lesser of two evils, always remember that it is still an evil."
- Max Lerner