The Homeland Security Secretary told a group of reporters last Wednesday that others besides the Army Corps of Engineers should take responsibility for the flooding of New Orleans. Michael Chertoff said more money should have been spent on maintenance rather than “earmarks and other things” over the years. (Chertoff is referring to allocations by Congress.)
The good news here is that Michael Chertoff didn’t try to blame the state and local governments for the failure of the federal flood protection.
The bad news is Chertoff doesn’t know what caused the worst engineering failure in the entire world since Chernobyl.
Chertoff should know by now that the levees failed due to egregious design and construction flaws, not bad maintenance. Chertoff also ought to know that the federal flood protection wasn’t yet even completed and was slated for completion in 2015.
But at least Chertoff didn’t blame the victims. And that’s a bit of progress since the days after the levee failures in metro New Orleans that turned the lives of a million people upside down.
Click here to write your members of Congress and demand the 8/29 Investigation Act. Don’t we all deserve levees that work?
Sandy Rosenthal
www.levees.org
Sandy
Amazed that Chertoff would say such a thing. He somehow forgot to blame the victim. Maybe they are being nice because they have some fresh horror for us with Powell’s replacement.
Happy to see that you found a solution for contacting congress on the 8/29. Very nice.
Alan