Just the Facts
Read this. It's the real reason why the levee's failed in NO. Why New Orleans Flooded.
A steel barge that came crashing into one of the levee walls, and not the failure of that levee to hold back an immense tidal wave, was to blame for much of the flooding that drowned parts of New Orleans.
And so starts a wonderful article based on facts as to the whys.
Most telling is this:
- Another huge wave came across Lake Pontchartrain in the north. It sent a steel barge ramming through the Industrial Canal, a major shipping artery that cuts north to south through the city, possibly creating a breach that grew to 500 feet, letting water pour into nearby neighborhoods of the city's Ninth Ward.
The barge's remains were found lying on the bottom of the gap. An early eyewitness reported seeing the barge smash through the levee. His report was never followed up by the media.
Shea Penland, director of the Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of New Orleans, said that break was particularly surprising because one of the levee breaks was "along a section that was just upgraded."
"It did not have an earthen levee," Dr. Penland told the New York Times. "It had a vertical concrete wall several feel thick."
- Vital repairs for which a whopping $600 million had been appropriated by the federal government were stopped after residents of the Ninth Ward complained about the noise created by the repair project and sued to halt it.
$600 Million. Authorized by the Bush Administration to fix the levees. Doesn't sound like they don't care, does it? And the residents are the ones that halted the work. Sounds like it was the residents who didn't want the levees upgraded.
The article goes on to talk about the shortcomings of the local government and how they failed in their jobs.
Go and read. It's very enlightening.