The Government Accountability Office has responded to pressure from Louisiana’s senior senator to review the US Army Corps of Engineers’ installation of $26 million worth of pumps installed last year in New Orleans even though senior officials knew they were defective.

After the Corps of Engineers’ supposedly Cat 3-proof levees failed in a Cat 2 that missed New Orleans, the Corps promised to install new pumps by the start of the next hurricane season.

The pumps, manufactured by a politically connected contractor who faces lawsuit on another issue, had mechanical problems that were spotted by their own engineers before the pumps were even installed.  The Corps installed them anyway.

The Corps’ rationale? According to Col. Jeffrey Bedey, “You have four months to build something that nobody has ever built before, and if you don’t, the city floods and the Corps, which already has a black eye, could basically be dissolved.”

It sure sounds like the Colonel is more concerned about the Corps’ reputation than the flooding of what is left of the City.

But there are more odd remarks being made by the Corps of Engineers even higher up the Col Bedey. Lt. Gen Carl Strock was quoted by the Washington Post as saying he was not aware of a Corps mechanical engineer’s misgivings about the pumps as outlined in a 2006 memo but added, “His concerns, I think, were valid.” The engineer, Maria Garzino, is, in fact, a woman. 

Lt Gen Strock is seems out of touch with the situation.

New Orleans was destroyed by bad engineering NOT bad weather. If you want to help New Orleans (and yourself, too) go to www.levees.org and sign the petition demanding a 9-11 style investigation into the failure of the federally built levees. We need to make certain this never happens again – anywhere.

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