New Orleans Levees breached again

[TonyCooper]

3 breaches now - 9th ward going under again - sigh....

[Guest]

The hurricane just got downgraded to a cat 3... but I think the flooding is still going to be real bad.

[Chris C]

I wonder if the people of New Orleans are wondering if all the money they spent on the Super Dome had been spent on upgrading levees wouldn't have been a wiser investment. But then, hey, sports are more important, right?

[TonyCooper]

Disastrous politics...

As residents in coastal Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama continue to piece their lives back together, there are two persistent questions about Hurricane Katrina at the forefront of acrimonious political debate this week.

First, there is the lingering question of who is responsible for the lack of planning, preparation and infrastructural improvement in the days, weeks, months and years leading up to the hurricane. This all-important question, however, has spawned a concerted effort to focus on the sluggish federal response as a diversion.

Clearly there were bureaucratic failures by FEMA—but that is the nature of the beast, and no amount of reform, other than decentralization, will change that. The most productive thing President George Bush can do to alleviate the bureaucratic abysses is to eliminate it. As noted in this column last week, "As a first measure, the President should fire every senior executive service lawyer in DHS, FEMA, DoD, et al. The entire federal bureaucracy is hamstrung by legalities."

As for the question of accountability in New Orleans, by now, everyone on the planet knows that most of New Orleans, with the exception of the original city settlement, has been developed below sea level—surrounded by expanding levees intended to protect it from Lake Pontchartrain, the Mississippi River and the Gulf. Those levees, designed to withstand a category three hurricane, were never upgraded to withstand a category four or five hurricane, though clearly such a storm was inevitable.

New Orleans officials wagered the city against odds of a big hurricane—and lost.

On a good day, New Orleans continuously pumps water out of the alluvial bowl created by its levees, though building structures there continue to sink. In the event of a category four or five hurricane, however, 80 percent of the city would be swamped, and every politician from the city's mayor to the state's governor knew it. But the Big Easy is a party town—a gambling destination—and the city's leadership wagered the city against odds of a big hurricane.

In the years prior to Hurricane Katrina, there were numerous factors that precluded the strengthening of New Orleans' levees. The primary burden for inaction lies with generations of corrupt Louisiana politicians, from the Huey Long dynasty forward. Despite the city's continued below-sea-level expansion, these crooked and negligent pols paid little regard to levee strength, even in the face of repeated warnings about their inadequacy. There were also successful legal challenges brought by environmental groups who blocked the expansion and hardening of levees in an effort to protect the neighboring wetlands. Indeed, New Orleans' hurricane-defense system—such as it was—would have been greatly improved by the Army Corps of Engineers had it not been for environmental lobby lawsuits in both 1977 and 1996.

In recent years, Louisiana has received more federal taxpayer-funded Corps of Engineer grants than any other state and has received more levee funding under the Bush administration than it did under the Clinton administration.

The Levee Board diverted $15 million for overpasses to riverboat casinos.

The funding New Orleans did receive was often diverted by the city's Levee Board to other projects. For example, the Board spent $2.4 million of levee funding on a Mardi Gras fountain near Lake Pontchartrain, and $15 million more on overpasses to riverboat casinos. All the while, a big storm was on the horizon.

On Monday, 29 August, after a few days of evacuation flip-flops, tens of thousands of New Orleans residents emerged midday to the realization that Katrina's worst winds had landed to the east. Although Katrina was now tearing into Mississippi and Alabama, New Orleans had—or so it thought—dodged the bullet.

As waters continued to rise against levees holding back Lake Pontchartrain, there was some concern that Katrina's massive rainfall might yet overtop the levees. However, it appears now that the levees were not overtopped. In fact, there is compelling evidence that the floodwalls failed structurally in two locations—which would not have happened if they had been built to specifications.

Simply put, somewhere there is a contractor, and a whole cadre of well-grafted inspectors, who are accountable for the structural failure of the levees. Finding that contractor will be one of many serious tasks facing congressional investigators in the coming months.

As you recall, in the immediate aftermath of the levee failure, Democrats were waving accusatory fingers and demanding an "inquisition commission." They were hoping for colorful headlines blaming the Bush administration and, by extension, anyone on a Republican ticket in the upcoming election year. Then, when Republicans joined in the call for investigations, Democrats quickly backed down and, indeed, refused to take part altogether. Upon reflection, they determined that an inquiry into factual communication, material distribution and evacuation failures after Katrina would instead bury Louisiana Democrats—from buck-passing New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (see his evacuation plan) to lachrymose Governor Kathleen Blanco to hysterical Senator Mary Landrieu.

To get to the bottom of the floodwaters in New Orleans—follow the money.

Truth be told, congressional investigators need only do one thing to get to the bottom of the floodwaters in New Orleans—follow the money.

Rep. Tom Davis, chairman of the Select Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina, said this week that his investigation will "move ahead" with or without Democrats. Rep. Davis, who also chairs the chamber's Government Reform Committee, said, "At the end of the day, we must come together for good, hard fact-finding." But, he noted, Democrats "could tie up the process forever, and losing time is losing information."

Perhaps the committee's first witness should be Bill Nungesser, a former Levee Board chairman who tried to reform the system. Mr. Nungesser says of the levee failure, "Every time I turned over a rock, there was something rotten. I used to tell people, 'If your children ever die in a hurricane, come shoot us, because we're responsible.' We throw away all sorts of money."

[D. Tillery]

San Antonio Saints has a nice ring to it. You should see the big Saints logo painted on all sides of the Alamodome. I hear there is a double secret undercover work crew from SA punching small holes in the levee and slipping away unnoticed.

Is this a fair trade? We take all your poor homeless folks and keep your NFL team. Unfortunately from what I hear of the Saints owner we'd be better off shipping the team to LA.

D. Tillery

[TonyCooper]

San Antonio is certainly a much larger market then New Orleans even if you include the entire Gulf coast from Louisiana to the Alabama/Fla state line.

[SteveH]

San Antonio is certainly a much larger market then New Orleans even if you include the entire Gulf coast from Louisiana to the Alabama/Fla state line.

Tony,

I heard someone up high with the NFL said they wouldn't leave the Saints in San Antonio because they didn't want to "open up any more small markets".

Wonder what he calls big, as the city of San Antonio proper is 1,150,000 people. That does NOT include all the surrounding area.

[TonyCooper]

Here are the 14 largest cities in the US.. Populations are 2004 estimates.
Only San Jose and San Antonio are missing NFL teams. It can be argued that San Jose is represented by San Fran.

I think San Antonio deserves an NFL franchise... unfortunately I don't get a vote.

New York, NY ---------- 8,104,079 --- 1
Los Angeles, CA ------ 3,845,541 --- 2
Chicago, IL ------------ 2,862,244 --- 3
Houston, TX ----------- 2,012,626 --- 4
Philadelphia, PA------- 1,470,151 --- 5
Phoenix, AZ ----------- 1,418,041 --- 6
San Diego, CA -------- 1,263,756 --- 7
San Antonio, TX ------ 1,236,249 --- 8
Dallas, TX -------------- 1,210,393 --- 9
San Jose, CA ----------- 904,522 --- 10
Detroit, MI -------------- 900,198 --- 11
Indianapolis, IN ------- 784,242 --- 12
Jacksonville, FL -------- 777,704 --- 13
San Francisco, CA ----- 744,230 --- 14

New Orleans is # 35 and losing population (even prior to Katrina - no pun intended).

Miami is #46
Cleveland is #36
Oakland is #44

Green Bay doesn't even come close to making the top 100 at 103,750 residents.


Of course that doesn't tell the whole story...

Boston (MA):
Size of core city: 589,000; size of urban agglomeration: 5,819,000; Greater Boston includes in addition to the city of Boston areas such as Brockton, Manchester and New Bedford.

Chicago (IL):
Size of core city: 2,896,000; size of urban agglomeration: 9,158,000; Greater Chicago includes in addition to the city of Chicago areas such as Gary, Kankakee and Kenosha.

Cleveland (OH):
Size of core city: 478,000; size of urban agglomeration: 2,946,000; Greater Cleveland includes in addition to the city of Cleveland areas such as Akron and Cleveland-Lorain-Elyria.

Dallas (TX):
Size of core city: 1,189,000; size of urban agglomeration: 5,222,000; Greater Dallas includes in addition to the city of Dallas areas such as Fort Worth and Arlington.

Detroit (MI):
Size of core city: 951,000; size of urban agglomeration: 5,456,000; Greater Detroit includes in addition to the city of Detroit areas such as Ann Arbor and Flint.

Houston (TX):
Size of core city: 1,954,000; size of urban agglomeration: 4,670,000; Greater Houston includes in addition to the city of Houston areas such as Galveston and Brazoria.

Los Angeles (CA):
Size of core city: 3,695,000; size of urban agglomeration: 16,374,000; Greater Los Angeles includes in addition to the city of Los Angeles areas such as Long Beach and Orange County.

Miami (FL):
Size of core city: 362,000; size of urban agglomeration: 3,876,000; Greater Miami includes in addition to the city of Miami areas such as Fort Lauderdale.

Minneapolis (MN):
Size of core city: 383,000; size of urban agglomeration: 2,946,000; Greater Minneapolis includes in addition to the city of Minneapolis areas such as its twin city St Paul.

New York (NY):
Size of core city: 8,008,000; Size of urban agglomeration: 21,200,000; Greater New York includes in addition to the city of New York areas such as Long Island, Jersey City and Bridgeport.

Philadelphia (PA):
Size of core city: 1,518,000; size of urban agglomeration: 6,188,000; Greater Philadelphia includes in addition to the city of Philadelphia areas such as Atlantic City and Wilmington-Newark.

Phoenix (AZ):
Size of core city: 1,321,000; size of urban agglomeration: 3,252,000; Greater Phoenix includes in addition to the city of Phoenix areas such as Mesa.

San Francisco (CA):
Size of core city: 777,000; size of urban agglomeration: 7,039,000; Greater San Francisco includes in addition to the city of San Francisco areas such as Oakland and San Jose.

Seattle (WA):
Size of core city: 563,000; size of urban agglomeration: 3,555,000; Greater Seattle includes in addition to the city of Seattle areas such as Bremerton, Olympia and Tacoma.

Washington (DC):
Size of core city: 572,000; size of urban agglomeration: 7,608,000; Greater Washington includes in addition to the city of Washington areas such as Baltimore.

[D. Tillery]

I've lived in Denver, Dallas, Houston and now San Antonio.

Everyone says the pop here is 1.2Mil +. But I don't know where the heck everyone is. They are not on the roads (no traffic), not in the phone book (one area code), not at the airport (no waiting).

I think that the numbers are a function of two things:
1) The City of San Antonio is almost as large as the entire county and not split into many small municipalities like a lot of cities.

AND Here's my opinion that could open a can of worms:
2) Over reporting of population to receive more federal money.

At any rate I still think SA could support the Saints but the Cowboys and Texans would throw a fit. But screw Jerry Jones. The look on his face last monday night at the end of the Redskins game was priceless!

D. Tillery