"If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break,' ?

[madrchsod]

New Orleans Levees:
Experts report seepage has been discovered at the 17th Street Canal in the Lakeview district. The seepage is being blamed on soft ground. Engineers say the problem afflicts other levess, which could fail during a storm. An engineering expert predicts there is a 40 percent chance the 17th Street Canal would collapse if water rises six feet above sea level. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says the seepage is not expected to cause a breach or a failure of any kind. They believe a new floodgate could be used to stop the flow of water into the canal and reduce pressure on the levee. (NICC and Media Source)

http://www.fema.gov/emergency/reports/2008/nat052308.shtm
FEMA: National Situation Update: Friday, May 23, 2008

does anyone really trust fema and the corp of engineers?

[EFerrari]

1. I swear our government is homocidal.

:mad:

[atreides1]

4. Don't you mean Genocidal?

[EFerrari]

5. I think it's pretty much an Equal Opportunity deal by now.

:shrug:

[YOY]

2. Corp of Engineers: I trust them quite a bit but not completely...that would be foolish.

FEMA: Not one iota.

[EFerrari]

7. The Army Corp of Engineers KNEW that the footings,

or whatever they are called, on the failed levees where too short before Katrina. They KNEW ahead of time. They're in it up to their eyeballs.

I can't remember where I heard it -- probably from Greg Palast but it could have been in Spike Lee's movie, too.

[YOY]

8. Yeah, but they follow orders....prolly a CO worth a pike of shit involved there.

You don't blame a tool for the carpenter's shortcomings.

[EFerrari]

10. They seem to follow orders too well. How many personnel knew

and kept their mouth shut?

We still don't know how many people died because of their silence.

[babylonsister]

3. When they stuff the floodwalls with newspaper instead of something 'concrete',

what should they expect? :nuke:

4 Investigates: Floodwalls stuffed with newspaper?
11:54 PM CDT on Thursday, April 24, 2008
Lee Zurik / WWL-TV News Anchor
Video at link~



“It blows my mind.”

Those are the words St. Bernard parish president Craig Taffaro used to watch videotape Eyewitness News showed him, of floodwalls built to protect his parish.

“That should be criminal,” Taffaro continues.

What he's talking about was witnessed by a St. Bernard Parish resident who didn't want to be identified, but did have sharp criticism of the work done by a contractor hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“It's like putting a Band-Aid on the hole of a gas tank of an airplane,” the resident said.

Instead of an airplane, it's a floodwall, and instead of a Band-Aid, the witness says two years ago, he saw the contractor filling the expansion joint or opening between the floodwalls with newspaper.

“The whole length of the wall was stuffed with newspaper.”

And when he confronted the contractor, the contractor blamed Washington for the substandard work.

more...

http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl042408tpleveepaper.98095b74.html

[Fireweed247]

6. Led Zepplin was way ahead of their time

Robert Plant for President!!

[jus_the_facts]

9. American Experience: Fatal Flood....a story of greed...power and race....

....same ol' story...same ol' song and dance. :evilfrown:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/flood/

TIME LINE

1726
Residents of New Orleans, near the mouth of the Mississippi River, build artificial levees ranging in height from 4 to 6 feet to protect their young city from the ravages of floods.

1812
Levee building remains in vogue along the Louisiana shores of the Mississippi. As settlers move into the territory north of New Orleans, levees are constructed. By 1812 levees have been built to safeguard 155 miles of land north of New Orleans on the east bank of the river and 180 miles north of the city on the west bank.

1814
As early as 1814 the debate over levee building begins, and proposals are made advocating alternatives to levees such as the creation of artificial outlets, called spillways, to drain floodwaters from the river


1926
April: The Army Corps of Engineers, having constructed levees stretching from Cairo, Illinois to New Orleans, publicly declares that the levee system along the Mississippi will prevent future floods.

Fall: Violent storms in the northern United States dump tons of water into tributaries throughout the continent that feed into the Mississippi.

1927
April 29: The torrent has moved south. With the river almost at the levee tops, New Orleans dynamites the Poydras levee, creating a 1500-foot break at an estimated cost of $2 million, to direct the flood waters away from the city and its half million inhabitants. Movie cameras are on hand to record the momentous scene. The New York Times reports that many people refuse to quit the area to be flooded by the levee break. One woman living in a lighthouse "says she won't quit her post unless Uncle Sam comes to take her away."

[1776Forever]

11. Testing the New Orleans Levees - Daily Kos - Bush buddies connection!

Testing the New Orleans Levees.
by ekyprogressive
Mon Aug 20, 2007

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/8/20/151353/182/306/373944

With Tests scheduled for this week, has anyone addressed the issues of the defective pumps purchased from Republican funders, or how the combination of the two would work?

The Republican money recycling machine continues, with this week being the test week for the New Orleans Levee system by the U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers. My personal prediction is they will either fail or be considered "adequate" which as most of you know means "set to fail under pressure." The reasoning behind my pessimism, as well as calling this the Republican money recycling machine, has to do with the contracts for the canal pumps.

Yes, the levees may hold in a controlled setting with water being pumped in, but what if the defective pumps purchased by the U.S. Corp of Engineers for 32 million from a corporation with some interesting ties to the Republican party is really put to the test. The combination of the two do not make me feel very sure about the safety of the city. And those Republican ties, go right to the Bush family.

The May 2 letter came in response to a request last month from the Louisiana Republican senator that the corps look into how Moving Water Industries Corp. got the $32 million (€23.66 million) contract to install 34 drainage pumps at New Orleans canals before the start of the 2006 hurricane season.

Portions of the specifications were taken verbatim from the catalog of MWI, a Deerfield Beach, Fla., company whose top officials have been major contributors to the Republican Party. MWI employed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, President George W. Bush's brother, to market its pumps during the 1980s.

I am still wondering, is there any tragedy or disaster these people will not try to make a quick buck off of? Their ability to funnel our tax dollars back into their own pockets is amazing isn't it?

..............

Brings to mind the Mike Malloy Bush Crime family tag doesn't it!!


:grr: :nuke: :grr:

[krkaufman]

12. "does anyone trust FEMA or ACoE?"

Not so long as they're under a Republican Administration.