It was bad enough when Rep Louie Gohmert R-TX, a bona fide member of Congress recently revealed in a House Committee meeting (through his surprised questions and behavior) that he didn’t know the failed levees in New Orleans were Army Corps levees. Yes, they’re federal levees not Louisiana levees.

But I got serious chills when the man slated to be the highest commander of the US Army Corps of Engineers was asked this critical question.

Committee Hearing of the Environment and Public Works Committee:
What is your view of the fact that “the Army Corps of Engineers has been criticized for its failure to do more to protect New Orleans from catastrophic hurricane damage?”

Lt. Gen Robert Van Antwerp:
“While I, like the rest of the Nation, am generally familiar with the tragedies and widespread damages associated with Hurricane Katrina, I am not personally familiar with the specific issues raised above.”

This spectacularly simpleton remark comes from the gentleman likely to replace Lt. Gen Carl Strock. I was there and watched Lt. Gen Strock report that the Army Corps had experienced their first catastrophic failure of one of their projects. I heard Stock’s voice crack as he delivered the statistics of the dead, the overwhelming majority of them, elderly.

How is it possible that his potential successor is not familiar with the news of that day, June 1, 2006? How could he of all people not be aware of the worst engineering failure in the history of the United States?

I commend both Senator David Vitter R-La and Senator Mary Landrieu D-La for putting a procedural hold on Lt Gen Van Antwerp’s nomination until someone brings him up to speed on what happened to an entire American City on just one day, August 29, 2005, due to the failure of a Corps-built levee system. As Senator Landrieu points out, 22% of the nation’s water projects are in Louisiana.

New Orleans and the surrounding region was destroyed because of bad levees not bad weather. This means the city was destroyed by a Federal Flood. And it could happen anywhere, to you.

If you want to help, go to www.levees.org and join us. Don’t we all deserve levees that work?

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