if this was posted elsewhere i missed it. pretty convincing evidence here as well. question remains, why the, apparent, coverup, and why is the media so, apparently, uninterested? -------- Associated Press Corps Takes Blame for New Orleans Flooding By CAIN BURDEAU , 06.01.2006, 04:22 PM A contrite U.S. Army Corps of Engineers took responsibility Thursday for the flooding of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina and said the levees failed because they were built in a disjointed fashion using outdated data. "This is the first time that the Corps has had to stand up and say, `We've had a catastrophic failure,'" Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, the Corps chief, said as the agency issued a 6,000-page-plus report on the disaster on Day 1 of the new hurricane season. The Corps said it will use the lessons it has learned to build better flood defenses. "Words alone will not restore trust in the Corps," Strock said, adding that the Corps is committed "to fulfilling our important responsibilities." The $19.7 million report includes details on the engineering and design failures that allowed the storm surge to overwhelm New Orleans' levees and floodwalls Aug. 29. Many of the findings and details on floodwall design, storm modeling and soil types have been released in pieces in recent months as the Corps sought to show it was being open about what went wrong. But the final report goes into greater depth. The Corps, Strock said, has undergone a period of intense introspection and is "deeply saddened and enormously troubled by the suffering of so many." Katrina damaged 169 miles of the 350-mile hurricane system that protects New Orleans and was blamed for more than 1,570 deaths in Louisiana alone. Robert Bea, a University of California at Berkeley engineer and Corps critic, called Strock's comments and the report signs of "a leadership in growth." "They're catching up with the 1,000 years of progress of the Dutch," Bea said, referring to the Netherlands' long, and mostly successful, history of battling the North Sea. The much-anticipated report - prepared by the 150-member Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force, assembled and headed by the Corps - is intended to serve as a road map for engineers as they seek to design and build better levees and floodwalls. Serious work began on New Orleans' hurricane protection system in the 1960s after Hurricane Betsy flooded the city in 1965. But over the decades, funding slackened and many parts of the system were not finished by the time Katrina hit. The result was a disjointed system of levees, inconsistent in quality, materials and design, that left gaps exploited by the storm, the report said. Also, engineers did not take into account the poor soil quality underneath New Orleans, the report said, and failed to account for the sinking of land, which caused some sections to be as much as 2 feet lower than other parts. Four breaches in canals that run through New Orleans were caused by foundation failures that were "not considered in the original design of these structures," the report said. Those breaches caused two-thirds of the city's flooding. Thursday's report urged the Corps to shift its formulaic cost-benefit approach on how it decides what projects are worthwhile. The agency was urged to look at potential environmental, societal and cultural losses, "without reducing everything to one measure such as dollars." The report did not directly address questions raised in other studies regarding the Corps' organizational mindset. Last month, a report by outside engineers said the Corps was dysfunctional and unreliable. That group, led by experts from the University of California at Berkeley, recommended setting up an agency to oversee the Corps' projects nationwide. In response to criticism after Katrina, the Corps has made fixing New Orleans' flood protection system a top priority and tried to incorporate the task force findings. The Corps already has spent about $800 million for repairs and improvements and plans to spend $3.7 billion over the next four years to raise and strengthen levees, increase pumping capacity and install more flood gates. A thorough assessment of the region's current flood defenses found no "glaring weaknesses," said Col. Richard Wagenaar, the Corps' district chief in New Orleans. The Atlantic hurricane season runs through Nov. 30. William Gray, a leading hurricane forecaster, said Wednesday that the 2006 season should not be as destructive as 2005, which set records with 28 named storms and four major hurricanes hitting land. Gray's team is forecasting 17 named storms this year, nine of them hurricanes.
and from the other linked post: http://wizbangblog.com/2006/08/28/the-katrina-video-congress-didnt-want-you-to-see.php click the link for the damning pictures and video. -- We've all heard the story, in the early morning hours of Aug 29, 2005, the Category 4 Hurricane Katrina roared ashore, overwhelming the New Orleans levee system and flooding the city. If you read Wizbang, you've known since early October of 2005 this story was fatally flawed. In the months since Katrina, we've learned that the storm was a Category 1 by the time she hit New Orleans. No "Super Hurricane," just an average storm. We've also learned that the New Orleans Hurricane Protection System was not overwhelmed by Katrina, it collapsed. Causing the Corps of Engineers admit they flooded New Orleans not Katrina... An admission that got scant little media coverage. The Great Flood of New Orleans was not a natural disaster but a man made one. The reason the Corps finally had to admit responsibility was that the floodwall that failed -flooding 70% of the city- basically collapsed under its own weight. It was undeniable. The Corps tried for months to claim the water came over the top of the floodwall and washed it away from the backside. (Which would make it Congress's fault) Everyone who has seen the break or looked at the surge data knew this was a lie; that the wall suffered a catastrophic failure before the water reached the top. Almost a year later, the Corps admitted that the floodwall suffered from multiple fatal design flaws and failed prematurely. What was not really told to the public however is how high the water got up the walls before they failed. - This is an important question to a city rebuilding ~$250 billion in infrastructure. It is commonly assumed by the public that the water must have been quite high. The question also has legal ramifications. Sovereign Immunity says citizens can not sue the government for damages unless there is negligence or Congress allows the government to be sued. If the public assumption is that Katrina was responsible for the flooding, Congress would never allow the government to be sued. Perhaps that explains why Congress confiscated a video of the floodwall collapsing and refused to let the public see it until (a perfectly timed) 10 months after the storm. - Well after the storm passed but a few months before the current 1 year anniversary hype. You've probably never seen it, but we have video taken by New Orleans firefighters as the 17th street canal floodwall was actually in the process of breaking during Katrina. It answers the question of just how prematurely the walls failed. The video was obtained by the National Geographic channel and aired a few weeks ago. (it took me a while to blog it, so sue me) The video -if you understand it- is shocking. Sadly, no one at National Geographic or even the local TV station got the significance of the video. -- Because they were looking at the wrong thing.
this is tragic: In the months since Katrina, we've learned that the storm was a Category 1 by the time she hit New Orleans. No "Super Hurricane," just an average storm. We've also learned that the New Orleans Hurricane Protection System was not overwhelmed by Katrina, it collapsed. Causing the Corps of Engineers admit they flooded New Orleans not Katrina... An admission that got scant little media coverage. The Great Flood of New Orleans was not a natural disaster but a man made one
Definitely an ACE responsibility. The Chief of the Army Corps of Engineers took full responsibility when interviewed during Spike Lee's Katrina documentary that aired last week on HBO. Not the first time I've heard it, but... 1. I do not know why the press hasn't reported it more. 2. This still does not absolve the Local, State and especially Federal governments from their weak, unorganized response to the victims.
Well I saw "Heck of a job Brownie" on MSNBC last night. He said the Bush gang told him to lie about how the feds were in control of Katrina managing all of the state and local efforts for political purposes. It still seems Jon Benet Ramsey and the soon to be a household name pederast extradited from Thailand are more important than this news item. A link to the story and a comment. ********** What Happens If Bush Tells "Heck of a Job Brownie" to Lie and the Media Doesn't Care? Submitted by BuzzFlash on Tue, 08/29/2006 - 5:10am. Editorials A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS Okay, on the anniversary of Bush's Katrina debacle, "Heck of a Job" Brownie tells all and reveals that Bush and the White House told him to lie and take the heat for the Katrina executive branch fiasco. Although we never ceased to be amazed at how the mainstream media generally follows a White House script, we sometimes do become just a BIT jaded and cynical. But if you have the former fired head of the Arabian Horse Association turned political hack appointee to run FEMA accusing the President of the United States of asking him (through WH staffers) to lie for "El Caudillo," that would appear to us to be pretty big news. We're wrong again. In fact, we could only find three non-mainstream sites with any reference to the accusation on Google, including one that we posted from a newsite from India! So, we have to go across to the Indian subcontinent to find a paper that posts an article about how Bush had his incompetent FEMA Director fall on his sword for the president, while the president praised the clueless FEMA Director for doing a "heck of a job," while Bush knew that his administration's response was an abominable horror. We were unexpectedly surprised, however, to see that the New York Times is finally reporting on the reality and truth surrounding a Hollywood-set Bush photo-op -- at least in one paragraph and about one event: "Mr. Bush delivered his remarks at an intersection in a working-class Biloxi neighborhood against a carefully orchestrated backdrop of neatly reconstructed homes. Just a few feet out of camera range stood gutted houses with wires dangling from interior ceilings. A tattered piece of crime scene tape hung from a tree in the field where Mr. Bush spoke. A toilet seat lay on its side in the grass." http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/articles/editorials/080
It absolutely had something to do with it. But the govt, including ACE, was telling everyone who would listen that the levees could sustain a Cat 3. In truth, they didn't sustain Cat 1. NOLA didn't get hit by a super-storm.
I highly doubt Brown has any credibility in circles and that is why people don't take his "admission" seriously.
Define Cat 3. The Cat definition is based on wind speed and not storm surge. Looking at just the storm surge, NOLA got hit with a serious storm.
it absolutely was a serious storm! no question. but half of the levees that fell apart were on the lake...not on the gulf or even the river. look, the corps of engineers themselves are coming out saying that their design failed. that it didn't do what it was supposed to do.
ACE killed Jefferson, TX as a river port too when they decided to remove the logjam, "Big Raft", from the Red River above Shreveport back in 1873. That effectively lowered the water level of Big Cypress Bayou to the point where shipping was no longer economical. ACE, your doing a helluva job!
A sham organization designed to pork up its puppetmasters' constituency? Wow, I wonder why Congress is so tightlipped over ACE. They've always been so vocal over its transparency....
I was just thinking the same thing. Just like "Heck of a job Brownie" was supposed to fall on his sword. Nice timing by the Corp of Engineers, though.
Anybody who thinks katrina hit the gulf coast as a catagery 1 hurricane is an idiot. There is absolutely no way that this storm glanced N.O. as a cat 1 storm and did as much damaged to Biloxi and Gulfport as Katrina did. A cat 1 storm does not create 20 feet plus of storm surge. There is no arguement that the leves in N.O. were inadequate. The lake levees failed because a very strong storm passed northeast of N.O. and pushed lake water over the levees. I think anybody who thinks that this was a average storm should be put in the same group that thinks that the goverment purposely sabotaged the N.O. levees.
ummm...no. no one is saying it didn't hit the mississippi/la border as a cat 3. but do you think cat 3 winds extended all the way out from where the eye passed over to NOLA??? NOLA was on the "clean side" of the storm. the further north and west you go from the eye, the better off you are. this was not NOLA's worst case scenario. not by a long shot. the bottom line is that the winds at the levees never went about cat 1. the storm surge was created well out in the gulf as the storm had grown into a cat 5. i'm not suggesting this storm sucked...or was weak. i'm suggesting that this is the type of storm that most folks from new orleans were pretty clear the levees could withstand. even if it made direct landfall in NOLA as a cat 3...they were told by the corps of civil engineers that these levees would hold up to that. that was clearly incorrect.
Yeah, but Katrina was a monster storm...it wasn't tiny...and usually even a cat one doesn't produce hurricane force winds except in a very tiny area for a very short time. Lake Ponchatrain was swirling in 100mph winds for a while, and before and after in hurricane type winds for hours.
