On Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:17:47 +1300, Jim wrote:

Gunner Asch wrote:

On Tue, 23 Oct 2007 08:11:52 -0700, "Stuart & Kathryn Fields"
wrote:


I'm in amazement "authorities said. Hundreds of homes were lost in the same
communityfours years ago." It seems like there is some flaw in our
education system.
Stu Fields


yet the same group that controls the educational system demands we
rebuild New Orleans at taxpayer expense......


It was a government agency that built the levees. If they're done a
better job in the first place , the need to rebuild wouldn't have
eventuated.

Jim

Might I suggest a good quality roller bearing under your ass if you
are going to try that sort of spin?


http://www.voanews.com/english/archi...TOKEN=64128304

"the levees that protect New Orleans today date from the 1960s. They
were built in response to earlier floods that had severely damaged the
city, and were considered state of the art at the time. Journalist
John McQuaid says the engineers who designed that system of levees did
so without the benefit of today's advanced technology. "They didn't
really know, since they didn't have computers up and running that
could model storm surges and the like, exactly what level of
protection it afforded, in terms of how likely it was to be
over-topped, but they were pretty proud of it and thought it would
last a long time."

Once they got computers, he says, they did model the effect of a
hurricane, and establish a rating for exactly the strength of storm
the levees could withstand. "It was a fast-moving Category 3 storm.
Anything stronger than that, the levee system could not be guaranteed
to protect the city."

And the levees were no match for Katrina -- which came off the Gulf of
Mexico as a
Two breeches in the Florida Street levee, looking toward the
Mississippi River, are shown Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005, in New Orleans
after Hurricane Katrina moved through the area.
Two breeches in the Florida Street levee, looking toward the
Mississippi River, are shown Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005, in New Orleans
after Hurricane Katrina moved through the area.
much stronger, category 5 storm -- one of the most powerful hurricanes
to hit the United States in years. It was heading straight for New
Orleans but veered off at the last minute. The city was spared a
direct hit. But a storm surge in its wake pushed water from Lake
Pontchartrain over the floodwalls and levees, eating at their
foundations until large sections collapsed.

John McQuaid co-authored a series of articles published in 2002 in New
Orleans' main newspaper, The Times-Picayune, which described just that
vulnerability. "This issue is something that every public official
was aware of," he says. "We published our series, which splashed it
all over town, and the state, and most people who lived in New Orleans
were aware that this was a risk. Most people, I think, hoped and
prayed that it was a relatively remote risk. But in part, New Orleans
always had this fatalistic undercurrent to its character from the very
beginning, and so I think some people thought, well, we'll let the
good times roll and we'll deal with it when it happens."

The reporter puts more of the blame on the government agencies and
bureaucracies that evaluate risk and decide how much money to spend to
counter that risk.

But it's not just a question of money, says Neil Grigg, a professor of
civil engineering at Colorado State University. Levees - like roads
and bridges - need constant attention, too. "Once the levee's built
and it's in there, and people forget about it, as they will do, things
happen to make its condition deteriorate." He enumerates some of those
things: animals can burrow into it, weeds and trees can grow on the
slopes, water can weaken it. "It needs a lot of maintenance and a lot
of attention, continuously, if it's going to be something you can rely
on. It's like these other infrastructure problems, it's not something
you can just put in place and forget about it, it requires a lot of
attention in the future."

Civil engineers agree that the future of New Orleans must include a
rigorous and regular levee maintenance program, and a more robust
pumping system… and money to pay for it all. MIT Professor Rafael Bras
recommends finding a way to increase the sediment that the Mississippi
River once deposited to build up the land on which New Orleans sits.
"What you have in New Orleans is a delta," he explains, "and if you do
not supply the sediment to the delta, then, in essence, you have
increased erosion and that erosion will endanger your situation
further. One way of dealing with the vagaries of nature is to let
nature help also by making sure we have enough sediment (as possible)
getting to the delta."

In spite of all efforts to protect New Orleans, civil engineering
professor Neil Grigg cites a 1993 study that concluded it was futile
to try to stand against one of nature's most powerful events. "What we
need to do is to learn to adjust to those (events), and not to live in
vulnerable areas, to be ready to evacuate, to have warning systems,
and to use these sort of non-structural approaches rather than to
build levees higher and higher and stronger and stronger. That just
doesn't work."

Despite the inherent peril of living below sea level, officials so far
are pledging to rebuild the city. Engineers stress that a new New
Orleans will need better protection from the surrounding water… and
better emergency plans in case efforts to keep out the water fail.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9342186/

Is the Orleans Levee Board doing its job?
Critics allege corruption, charge the board with wasteful spending

FREE VIDEO
New Orleans levee board negligent?
Sept. 14: An NBC News investigation reveals that the New Orleans levee
board spent millions on pet projects that had nothing to do with
protecting the city. Correspondent Lisa Myers has the story.

The unveiling of the Mardi Gras Fountain was celebrated this year in
typical New Orleans style. The cost of $2.4 million was paid by the
Orleans Levee Board, the state agency whose main job is to protect the
levees surrounding New Orleans — the same levees that failed after
Katrina hit.

"They misspent the money," says Billy Nungesser, a former top
Republican official who was briefly president of the Levee Board. "Any
dollar they wasted was a dollar that could have went in the levees."

Nungesser says he lost his job because he targeted wasteful spending.

"A cesspool of politics, that’s all it was," says Nungesser. "[Its
purpose was to] provide jobs for people."

In fact, NBC News has uncovered a pattern of what critics call
questionable spending practices by the Levee Board — a board which, at
one point, was accused by a state inspector general of "a
long-standing and continuing disregard of the public interest."

Beyond the fountain, there's the $15 million spent on two overpasses
that helped gamblers get to Bally's riverboat casino. Critics tried
and failed to put some of that money into flood protection.

There was also $45,000 for private investigators to dig up dirt on
radio host and board critic Robert Namer.

"They hired a private eye for nine months to find something to make me
look wacko, to make me look crazy or bad." says Namer. "They couldn’t
find anything."

Namer sued and the board then spent another $45,000 to settle.

Critics charge, for years, the board has paid more attention to
marinas, gambling and business than to maintaining the levees. As an
example: of 11 construction projects now on the board's Web site, only
two are related to flood control.

"I assure you," says Levee Board President Jim Huey, "that you will
find that all of our money was appropriately expended."

Huey says money for the levees comes from a different account than
money for business activities and that part of the board’s job is
providing recreational opportunities.

And despite the catastrophic flooding, Huey says, "As far as the
overall flood protection system, it's intact, it's there today, it
worked. In 239 miles of levees, 152 floodgates, and canals throughout
this entire city, there was only two areas."

But those two critical areas were major canals and their collapse
contributed to hundreds of deaths and widespread destruction.

Lisa Myers is NBC’s senior investigative correspondent.
© 2007 MSNBC Interactive