Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to re: I guess we will never know....

A few things being talked about around the Super Dome water cooler
FrankC — (archived)

The mayor announced that tons of sand bags and concrete were dropped into the levee breaches. The press advised him that that had not been done and he was nonplussed and immediately called for an investigation. When this fix was finally tried it was like pissing into the ocean. Too late or too little, who knows?

The people were not told that the city knew the levee pumps would be inundated by the storm surge and so evacuated the personnel that run the pumps. Most people on the streets thought that the personnel had abandoned their post.

People on roof tops refused helicopter evac, instead screaming for the pumps to be turned on. Little did they know that the pumps were unmanned, inundated and the levee had several quarter mile breaches.

Every Lake Authority worker knew that the Levees had only 6' deep concrete footings that would result in undermining and levee collapse in the face of any significant storm surge. Was 6' per specs or did locals line their pockets with money saved on inferior construction?

There will be lots of culpability to go around and it will probably not skip any local or federal administration over the past 40-50 years. We are talking about a state that has made patronage a fine art and jobs like state meat inspector paid 25-50K per year for never inspecting anything. Bribery in state affairs is discussed as openly as it is in banana republics.

The response might ultimately be judged to be horrible or not but I maintain that it would have been no better under any fed admin. This tragedy has been forcast for a hundred years and no one has done anything to prepare or prevent it. This is not a political failure it is a human failure.

After all it is "the city that care forgot" so I guess nobody gave a damn

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