Why is it we are still talking about the aftermath of Katrina, the billions of dollar still needed to fix things. And now through an Associated Press (AP) investigative report we find people are being complacent with the shotty unfinished work done so far, and how they believe they could NOW withstand another Katrina. Wow, how deadly wrong they are.
In a yearlong review of levee work, The Associated Press tracked a pattern of public misperception, political jockeying and legal fighting, along with economic and engineering miscalculations, that threaten to make New Orleans the scene of another devastating flood.
Interviews with a variety of officials confirmed that many have not learned from mistakes made after Hurricane Betsy in 1965, which set the stage for Hurricane Katrina.
"People forget, but they cannot afford to forget," said Windell Curole, a Louisiana hurricane and levee expert. "If you believe you can't flood, that's when you increase the risk of flooding. In New Orleans, I don't think they talk about the risk."
Levees tend to get built after devastating hurricanes: It's happening now and it happened after Betsy flooded much of the same low ground that Katrina invaded.
Between Betsy and Katrina, about 22,000 homes were built in eastern New Orleans.
"We were under the illusion that what we had done would prevent another Betsy from flooding the area," said Philip Ciaccio, a former longtime politician from eastern New Orleans, a reclaimed swamp. "Hopefully the experts know what they're doing this time."
The corps says its work is making the city safer, but there are doubts.
Records show the corps has installed faulty drainage pumps, used outdated measurements, issued incorrect data, unearthed critical flaws, made conflicting statements about flood risk and flunked reviews by the National Research Council.
A critical analysis of what it would take to build 500-year levees was supposed to be done last December but remains unfinished.
The corps says the work is on budget and will be done by 2011. mmmmm maybe but what t kind of storms will we have before then?