Letter: Katrina flooding was man-caused

You’ll want to understand an important thing about New Orleans readers: we care about how you phrase things when reporting on the flood of 2005.

Bill Lodge’s Feb. 13 article about the Van Heerden/LSU settlement incorrectly characterizes Katrina, the hurricane, as having submerged New Orleans. In fact, the flood happened because the U.S. Corps of Engineers didn’t properly design, construct or maintain the federal flood-control levees surrounding the city.

The flood was a man-made disaster directly caused by the malfeasance and negligence of the Corps, who lied to the people of New Orleans about the fitness of the levees. Those levees failed while still within their design capacity; and those levee failures are what submerged the city, not some weather event.

Ray Lang

associate professor

New Orleans

Comments

1) Comment by InPVille - 02/03/2013

Consider these tidbits. The levees around New Orleans were supposed to be constructed to withstand a level three hurricane. Katrina was a level five hurricane until just before landfall. Also the eye of the storm moved east just before landfall pushing the most potent storm surge into the state of Mississippi instead of directly into New Orleans. To top things off Congress only funded the reconstruction of the levees to the previous level three standards when it should be patently obvious that this is inadequate to ensure New Orleans will not be again flooded should another hurricane(this time either level four or five) hits the area and this time comes ashore with the eye just west of New Orleans and it receives the full storm surge and could be even worse should it happen at high tide as happened with hurricane Sandy last year.

2) Comment by InPVille - 23/02/2013

@Big Hug: Heck! When the first European explorers were investigating the Mississippi River before European settlement began the Jesuit scientist assigned to the expedition recommended to the King that under no circumstances should levees ever be built on the Mississippi River.

3) Comment by Bighug - 23/02/2013

InPville, you are correct about the storm surge from the gulf, but do you remember from the book that the two most prominent river control engineers in the world disagreed on almost everything except one. Both said that building levees was the wrong way to go, and instead a series of rock jetties built to keep the river bed scoured and clear would be better. They were correct. The corps made the decision to build levees against the best advice available.

4) Comment by nimby? - 23/02/2013

the levee board at the time were democratic , politically appointments with no knowledge of their charge . they didn't even keep the grass cut . they were notorious for their misuse of funds ...

5) Comment by tradewinns - 23/02/2013

hellobatonrouge is the only commenter who made a flat out truthful statement. if people insist on building in an area below sea level, that's fine with me. but do not come to me (the taxpayer) to bail you out when you flood. it isn't a matter of if you flood but when you flood. at the very least the homeowners MUST carry private flood insurance for their area. no insurance? good luck.

6) Comment by Melisse3 - 23/02/2013

No, the problem is here is the warped idea prevelant in this country that the US Federal government should be responsible for protecting local cities against their own bad decisions. After the levees are built, ownership and responsibility should transfer to local authorities 100%. The federal government should not be involved. And if state and local officials want to develop a city below sea level, I don't see how that dumb idea is the responsibility of the US government. Same goes for any beach-home along the coast.

7) Comment by Mygulfbleedsforu - 23/02/2013

While I do feel your pain and anger, Mr. Lang, the fact is that the levees, absent "some weather event," would not have failed and flooded the city. This one spectacular weather event was singularly involved in the flooding of the city. Should the levee system have performed better? Almost certainly. None of us wants to see New Orleans become a ghost town -- we all love it -- but the previous commenter is right: it's just a matter of time before Mother Nature wins.

8) Comment by Hello Baton Rouge - 23/02/2013

Im not going to read any posts, rather, i'll just correct you and tell you that Katrina flooding was caused because someone had the brilliant idea to build a city between two major bodies of water and below sea level. Its just a matter of time before mother nature wins. Stop blaming the corps.

9) Comment by Attila - 23/02/2013

Picture, if you can, the city of New Oleans as being in the bowl of a toilet. Picture Lake Ponchartrain as being the tank of the toilet. Picture the result when the tank is emptied. N. O. was and is doomed to flood. Water runs downhill. N. O. is built at the bottom of the hill. Levees or no levees it was bound to happen and will happen again...but everyone knows it was really George Bush's fault.

10) Comment by InPVille - 23/02/2013

Also the flooding discussed in Mr. Barry's book had to do with water coming down the Mississippi River. The water from Katrina was being pushed ashore from the Gulf of Mexico.

11) Comment by InPVille - 23/02/2013

@Bighug: Please explain! Your statement seems self-contradictory. How high was the storm surge in Mississippi during Katrina? Someone told me a relative had rebuilt his home eight feed higher than the previous surge level. During Katrina the water level went up to the ceiling.

12) Comment by InPVille - 23/02/2013

Prior to the construction of the Mississippi River levee system the river delta formation process was adding a parish worth of land about every thousand years. How must coast has been lost in the less than 100 years since? Likely it is already more than what the river could form in a thousand years. If it is thought that like the London Bridge and the temple in Egypt that was moved during construction, some of the historic New Orleans buildings are worth saving, they might be moved with the relocation of the city. But sooner or later the present site of New Orleans will be under water year round unless you remove the Mississippi levees. How likely is that? Of course if you remove the levees, you have spring flooding. Spend how much $$ to fight the losing battle or spend it on something that has a chance to last? Is the supply of money available to take care of ALL needs limitless? You decide!

13) Comment by Bighug - 23/02/2013

InPville, you are making an uneducated statement when you say the area would have been flooded if there were no levees. In fact, there is good evidence that levees are part of the flooding problem. Read "Rising Tide" by John Barry for more information.

14) Comment by InPVille - 22/02/2013

@raybebaby: The problems with the New Orleans Levees can be found just about everywhere there are levees in the United States. The same can be said for most of the earthen dams. People want the levees and some want the dams but they don't want to pay the necessary taxes to fund what our Government would have to spend to properly maintain them. Also the Mississippi River levees constructed after the floods of 1927 are the reason the Gulf of Mexico is reclaiming what 10,000 years of Delta formation had created. The fight to keep New Orleans from being reclaimed by the Gulf amounts to fighting the long defeat.

15) Comment by raybebaby - 22/02/2013

Forget that Cat 3# Cat 5 stuff. That is irrelevant. The levees fell long before they were close to even being overtopped. It turned out the levee board had no culpability for the flooding either. Did you know the official federal position by federal courts after years of studying tons of forensic engineering reports is that the flood never would have happened had it not been for Gross Engineering Negligence by the federal levee design engineers? Dr. van Heerden proved to be correct and LSU wrong in their official position that the flood was simply because of Katrina. This fact is not hard to check.

16) Comment by InPVille - 22/02/2013

Semantics! Had there been no man made levees, the entire area would have flooded. Until just before Katrina came ashore it was a Category 5 hurricane. The New Orleans Levee System was only supposed to be able to deal with a Category 3 hurricane. Last I heard Congress had only agreed to fund the rebuilding of the New Orleans Levee System to Category 3 standards. Also don't forget the culpability of the various Levee Boards. Any blame does not rest with just the Corps of Engineers. There is plenty to go around.