Corruption, cronyism and New Orleans levees

A report just released by the American Society of Civil Engineers draws a simple conclusion on why 80% of New Orleans flooded on August 29, 2005.

Corruption, cronyism and construction was negligible in the failure of the flood protection. Money constraints from Congress contributed, but the primary cause of the New Orleans disaster was flawed design of its protective structures.

This report gives the technical data on what Louisiana citizens have known all along; that metro New Orleans was destroyed due to engineering failures, not a natural disaster. And since the US Army Corps of Engineers is (by federal mandate since 1965), the sole organization responsible for the design of the flood protection, then the Army Corps is primarily responsible for the flooding of metro New Orleans.

Vincenzo Pasquantonio, Legislative Director for Levees.Org and I will be on Garland Robinette’s radio show Monday June 11 at 2:10p CST, FM 105.3. Tune in!

Sandy Rosenthal
Founder, Levees.Org
www.levees.org

Link to the article

Link to the ASCE report

5 responses to “Corruption, cronyism and New Orleans levees”

  1. Ben says:

    Yeah right. I wouldn’t doubt some money changed hands between the civil engineers and the notoriously corrupt leaders of New Orleans to get that verdict.

  2. S. Rosenthal says:

    If this were true, those New Orleans leaders would be indicted and in prison by now. The federal government doesn’t like when it’s money is stolen. The federal government will come get you.

  3. Uncle Joe says:

    The US Army Corps of Engineers warned the New Orleans government that the levees were inadequate. Every year, the New Orleans government would use this to justify asking Congress for an allocation to fix the levees, and every year the Congress would approve the extra money. And every year, the New Orleans government would misappropriate the funds to something else. In the year before Katrina hit, they spent the money on bike paths.

    There has been a brilliantly clever attempt here to cast blame away from Democrat officials, especially in the city itself, and onto the USACE. If only this sort of dedication had been applied to heeding their warnings, instead of lining the pockets of Democrats and their friends. Unfortunately, favorable spin won’t protect the city from the next Category 5 hurricane.

  4. S. Rosenthal says:

    Dear Uncle Joe,

    We are not aware of any record or documentation that the Corps warned the N.O. govt that the levees were inadequate. If you have such data, we would dearly love to see it.

    Sandy Rosenthal
    Founder of Levees.org

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