Wizbang has a post about "The Katrina Video Congress Didn't Want You to See".
After looking at a video, and at other photographic evidence, he concludes the levees failed because they were flawed.
The bottom line is, Katrina's storm surge did not wash the wall away. As you may remember, water had been seeping under the floodwall at the break location for about a year before Katrina. The ground under the levee was soaked and ready to give at any moment...
New Orleans was doomed with or without Katrina, we just didn't know it. A good high tide puts more water in the canal than this. As the video shows, the water was barely higher than normal levels. The walls could have failed on a decent high tide.
And indeed, we may owe the hurricane a vote of thanks.
What I will say next will probably completely throw you. Katrina saved probably over 50,000 lives.
That levee was doomed. If it had failed without notice, the death toll would have been measured in tens of thousands. There would be no evacuation, no preparation, no Feds at all. (such that they were anyway) no Coast Guard in choppers etc. Tens of thousands of people would have been dead in hours and tens of thousands more would have died on 120 degree rooftops waiting for rescue. It would have been unimaginable. - More unimaginable.
1 comment:
Just to clarify, these were FEDERAL levees. Forensics were done on remaining levee sections. They were built to the design specifications given the builders by the Army Corps of Engineers. Poorly designed levees that put the lives of a half a million Americans at risk. According to the National Geographic, it seems that the new repairs are on a similar level of quality.
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/levees/index.html
Where is the rage America?
Post a Comment