New Orleans repeating deadly levee mistakes

[Ban Hammer 14,164]

NEW ORLEANS - Signs are emerging that history is repeating itself in the Big Easy, still healing from Katrina: People have forgotten a lesson from four decades ago and believe once again that the federal government is constructing a levee system they can prosper behind.

In a yearlong review of levee work here, The Associated Press has tracked a pattern of public misperception, political jockeying and legal fighting, along with economic and engineering miscalculations since Katrina, that threaten to make New Orleans the scene of another devastating flood.

Dozens of interviews with engineers, historians, policymakers and flood zone residents confirmed many have not learned from public policy mistakes made after Hurricane Betsy in 1965, which set the stage for Katrina; many mistakes are being repeated.

"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."

Tyrone Marshall, a 48-year-old bread vendor, is one person who doesn't believe he's going to flood again.

"They've heightened the levees. They're raised up. It makes me feel safe," he said as he toiled outside his home in hard-hit Gentilly, a formerly flooded property refashioned into a California-style bungalow.

Geneva Stanford, a 76-year-old health care worker, is a believer, too. She lives in a trim and tidy prefabricated house in the Lower 9th Ward, 200 feet from a rebuilt floodwall that Katrina broke.

"This wall here wasn't there when we had the flood," Stanford said, radiant in a bright kanga-style dress. "When I look at it now, I say maybe if we had had it up it there then, maybe we wouldn't have flooded."

They're not alone. A recent University of New Orleans survey of residents found concern about levee safety was dropping off the list of top worries, replaced by crime, incompetent leadership and corruption.

This sense of security, though, may be dangerously naive.

For the foreseeable future, New Orleans will be protected by levees unable to protect against another storm like Katrina.

When and if the Army Corps of Engineers finishes $14.8 billion in post-Katrina work, the city will have limited protection — what are defined as 100-year levees.

This does not mean they'd stand up to storms for a century. Under the 100-year standard, in fact, experts say that every house being rebuilt in New Orleans has a 26 percent chance of being flooded again over a 30-year mortgage; and every child born in New Orleans would have nearly a 60 percent chance of seeing a major flood in his or her life.

"It's not exactly great protection," said John Barry, the author of "Rising Tide," a book New Orleans college students read to learn about the corps' efforts to tame the Mississippi.

As a rule, any levee building makes people feel good in this unsettling landscape where the Gulf of Mexico can be seen gleaming from the top floors of skyscrapers and where the ubiquitous dynamics of a sinking and eroding river delta ripple through every aspect of life.

Levees tend to get built after devastating hurricanes: It's happening now and it happened after Betsy struck and flooded much of the same low ground that Katrina invaded.

"We did go in and did a whole bunch of levee work right after Betsy," said Philip Ciaccio, a New Orleans appellate judge and longtime former politician from eastern New Orleans, a reclaimed swamp transformed into the Big Easy's version of the American suburban dream.

Between Betsy and Katrina, about 22,000 homes were constructed in eastern New Orleans out of an abundance of confidence.

"We were under the illusion that what we had done would prevent another Betsy from flooding the area," Ciaccio said. "Hopefully the experts know what they're doing this time."

The corps says its work is making the city safer, but there are serious doubts.

At every step in the scramble to correct the engineering breakdowns of Katrina, independent experts have questioned the ability of the corps, an agency that has accumulated ever more power over the fate of New Orleans, to do the right job.

On the road to recovery, the agency 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.

At the same time, the corps has run into funding problems, lawsuits, a tangle of local interests and engineering difficulties — all of which has led to delays in getting the promised work done.

An initial September 2010 target to complete the $14.8 billion in post-Katrina work has slipped to mid-2011. Then last September, an Army audit found 84 percent of work behind schedule because of engineering complexities, environmental provisos and real estate transactions. The report added that costs would likely soar.

A more recent analysis shows the start of 84 of 156 projects was delayed — 15 of them by six months or more. Meanwhile, a critical analysis of what it would take to build even stronger protection — 500-year-type levees — was supposed to be done last December but remains unfinished.

Another opportunity for setbacks: The corps says it will need more than 100 million cubic yards of clay and dirt to build up levees — enough to fill the Louisiana Superdome 20 times.

Also on the corps' drawing board are gigantic pumps capable of pushing more than 20,000 cubic feet of water per second. For comparison, the biggest pumps in New Orleans move about 6,000 cfs every second and they're among the most impressive in the nation.

That's not all: The corps has awarded The Shaw Group a $695 million contract to build a massive barrier against storm surge in the Industrial Canal. It's touted as one of the biggest public works projects ever performed by the agency.

Publicly, the corps says the work is on budget and will be done by 2011.

"The progress I see each time I visit is really remarkable. The region has a better hurricane and storm damage reduction system in place than ever before in its history — and it will continue to get better," Lt. Gen. Robert Van Antwerp, the corps chief, wrote on his blog in April.

Al Naomi, a corps branch chief who's worked for the past 37 years in New Orleans, said he was upbeat because Congress has shown a willingness to fund the work. In addition, he said, enough elements are coming together to make him "cautiously optimistic" the work will stay on track.

"We are in pretty good shape financially to do quite a bit of work in this area," he said.

Doubts, though, weigh on those familiar with the game plan.

"It's almost one of those proverbial `you can't get there from where we are' situations," said Gerald Spohrer, executive director of the West Jefferson levee district. The deadline, he said, is "overly optimistic."

The trouble so far stirs up bad memories: Of the four decades of excruciatingly slow levee building after Betsy.

Betsy was eerily similar to Katrina. The levees broke. Water reached roof tops and people clung to trees for survival. A flotilla of rescuers worked for days in lingering floodwaters.

In Betsy's aftermath, President Lyndon B. Johnson — like President Bush — pledged to rebuild New Orleans and make it safe from hurricanes. Little more than a month after the storm, Congress gave the corps $85 million to build a Category 3 hurricane levee system.

By 1976, though, the Government Accountability Office found the completion date for the work had slipped 13 years, from 1978 to 1991. Costs had soared to $352 million. By 1982, the GAO found that the project's cost had increased to $757 million and the agency said the work would not get done by 2008.

Katrina's storm surge laid bare the incomplete and inadequate work.

What happened? By 1968, a Congress worn down by the Vietnam war and economic turmoil began reining in spending; at the same time, the work met resistance from Louisiana politicians, communities, environmentalists and businesses fighting for individual interests.

For example, the corps scrapped a plan in the 1970s to build a floodgate at the entrance to Lake Pontchartrain out of concern that it would impede boats and marine life. Next, the alternate plan to build gates at the mouths of city drainage canals was rejected. Finally, the corps built floodwalls on the canals — and they broke during Katrina.

Can this sort of history repeat itself?

"All the human instincts post-Katrina are the same (as) post-Betsy," said Oliver Houck, a natural resources law professor at Tulane University and longtime New Orleans resident who participated in many of the fights since Betsy.

Some present-day examples of those instincts:

• Politicians have pushed for development in wetlands, undercut flood protection efforts with legislation and balked at paying for levee work.

• Environmentalists have pushed for wetlands-sensitive policies that arguably could add millions of dollars in costs.

• Residents have filed lawsuits to stop the corps from removing trees the agency says pose a risk to levees and sued the corps over the Katrina levee breaches.

• Policymakers are encouraging development in risky areas.

Ameliorating that last instinct is the business of Joe Sullivan, the 82-year-old city engineer who's overseen the New Orleans drainage and water department for nearly a half century.

"We keep building in holes, and contractors keep trying to move in and take advantage of a situation: They come in with a bunch of contractors, sell off property in low places, take their money and run," Sullivan said.

He runs his finger across a city drainage map. On it, green indicates low-lying terrain, and green is everywhere.

"You see that green spot up there? That's below sea level, well below sea level," he said. "There's some people going to have dinner tonight out there in New Orleans east, they're walking on the floor inside their house at 13 feet below sea level."

Naomi, the Corps of Engineers veteran, said his agency was candid about telling people the risk they face.

"We're in the job of risk reduction, not risk elimination," he said. "Strictly relying on levees alone should not give anyone the impression they are risk free. I think that would be a horrible mistake to make."

Three years since Katrina killed more than 1,600 people and destroyed a way of life here, New Orleans is trying to reclaim a past taken away from it.

And there are some promising signs.

Streetcars are swaying on St. Charles Avenue again. Coteries of old men have reappeared, swapping stories in the shade. There are plans for new parks, schools and theaters.

But the past remains prologue in another sense, too: This majestic city is still perilously at the mercy of the next hurricane.

"What we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history," said Tim Doody, the president of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East, a consolidated regional levee board created after Katrina to improve levee protection.

"What happened after Betsy? Katrina," Doody said. "And what's going to happen after Katrina? Pick a name and put it on it and it's going to happen again unless we pull together to make sure."

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[peejay 327]

And developers are building multi-million $ homes all up and down the Texas coast. Most are weekender 2nd homes. The US taxpayer should not have to pay to rebuild these things when the inevitable hurricane knocks them down.

[PlatyPius 5]

Call me heartless and crass, but I wouldn't really care if New Orleans didn't exist. Nor would I care if every "summer beach house" in the US was destroyed by flood, hurricane, locusts, or ravenous plagues of Mormons. Those things just don't fall in my "give a sh!t" category. Unless they want me to pay for them. Then I care enough to say "F##k you!"

[Alex+R 0]

Call me heartless and crass, but I wouldn't really care if New Orleans didn't exist. Nor would I care if every "summer beach house" in the US was destroyed by flood, hurricane, locusts, or ravenous plagues of Mormons. Those things just don't fall in my "give a sh!t" category. Unless they want me to pay for them. Then I care enough to say "F##k you!"

You are heartless and crass.

But actually, that's a pretty terrible thing to say. How can you equate NOLA with beach houses? I don't think many of the people who lost their homes in Katrina had beach houses.

[Ban Hammer 14,164]

I don't think many of the people who lost their homes in Katrina had beach houses.

when the beach comes to you, it's a beach house.

[IAMX 3,055]

Call me heartless and crass, but I wouldn't really care if New Orleans didn't exist. Nor would I care if every "summer beach house" in the US was destroyed by flood, hurricane, locusts, or ravenous plagues of Mormons. Those things just don't fall in my "give a sh!t" category. Unless they want me to pay for them. Then I care enough to say "F##k you!"

It's not to say you're heartless and crass, but simply short-sighted and head-in-the-sand about the situation. Much the same way many foreigners look at Americans who know little beyond their front lawn. There's substantially more residential homes and small businesses in the area, and the cultural/historical value of New Orleans (and the entire state of Louisiana, even though they unfortunately vote Republican) far exceeds Indiana or any of the states bordering it.

Pertaining to the article, the only thing I get out of their making a subsequent repeat of the mistake is those re-building the levee and city simply don't mind it ###### up because.. they get to build it again and make more money. This is the market turning products or services into planned obsolescence to secure further crummy products and services.

Edited August 23, 2008 by SRVT

[PlatyPius 5]

Call me heartless and crass, but I wouldn't really care if New Orleans didn't exist. Nor would I care if every "summer beach house" in the US was destroyed by flood, hurricane, locusts, or ravenous plagues of Mormons. Those things just don't fall in my "give a sh!t" category. Unless they want me to pay for them. Then I care enough to say "F##k you!"

You are heartless and crass.

But actually, that's a pretty terrible thing to say. How can you equate NOLA with beach houses? I don't think many of the people who lost their homes in Katrina had beach houses.

Those are two seperate rants. New Orleans and beach houses. Completely different things. Related only by flooding/hurricanes.

[PlatyPius 5]

There's substantially more residential homes and small businesses in the area, and the cultural/historical value of New Orleans (and the entire state of Louisiana, even though they unfortunately vote Republican) far exceeds Indiana or any of the states bordering it.

There is also likely more crime in just New Orleans than there is in Indiana or any of the bordering states, save Michigan (Detroit). I've been to NO. NO is a cesspool, even without the flooding. Contrary to your apparent belief, I am not one of those people who has lived in his hometown all of his life. I have lived in a few different states, and have visited 48 of them (although not mainland Alaska - only Sitka). I don't just pull these opinions out of my ####### - I have to have been to places that I profess to hate. I've been to several towns in Florida, as well as worked in Ocala for a project. It is with this experience that I can say that Florida sucks and I would rather live in almost any other state in the US than Florida.

Beach houses.... well, the wealthy - or wannabe wealthy - always make good targets. And they're SOOOOO deserving.

Edited August 23, 2008 by PlatyPius

[bgreed 0]

Being that I live just outside(thank God) the S***hole that trys to put its self out as a cultural mecca etc. etc. I have found that a good share of the people that live in this area are just plain lazy and stupid. It's all about having a good time. Your freaking house can be falling apart, but it's more important to have an expensive big party than to fix your house.

Oh and nearly three years later you've still got blue tarps on your roof rather than get it fixed. Or your still living in FEMA trailer crying about your road home money instead of getting your A$$ to work and getting the repairs done.

Streets three years later still lined with flooded out houses sitting empty and vacant an eyesore and just asking for more trouble. These people build houses in places where you wouldn't be allowed to build in most states. You ask them why would you build in an area that floods and they have no good answer.

By the way back when New Orleans was founded the indians to them where the best places to build were that wouldn't flood and those places didn't flood during Katrina. Now if you go look at where the breach in the canal was, there is the top of the canal and thirty feet below are houses. Now I don't know about you but if I build a house I want it to be above water not thirty feet below.

It's not all bad here I have met some sweet and genuine people but they are by far the minority. Most are whiners looking for a handout or to do the least work possible with the lowest quality. And they don't even care if they make crappy wages just as long as they don't have to work too hard. The others are totally arrogant whiners expecting that you should do something for them just because they think they deserve it. After all they're "somebody".

Government should have just let the place remain a dead zone and moved on.

[IAMX 3,055]

There's substantially more residential homes and small businesses in the area, and the cultural/historical value of New Orleans (and the entire state of Louisiana, even though they unfortunately vote Republican) far exceeds Indiana or any of the states bordering it.

There is also likely more crime in just New Orleans than there is in Indiana or any of the bordering states, save Michigan (Detroit). I've been to NO. NO is a cesspool, even without the flooding. Contrary to your apparent belief, I am not one of those people who has lived in his hometown all of his life. I have lived in a few different states, and have visited 48 of them (although not mainland Alaska - only Sitka). I don't just pull these opinions out of my ####### - I have to have been to places that I profess to hate. I've been to several towns in Florida, as well as worked in Ocala for a project. It is with this experience that I can say that Florida sucks and I would rather live in almost any other state in the US than Florida.

Beach houses.... well, the wealthy - or wannabe wealthy - always make good targets. And they're SOOOOO deserving.

If your target is beach homes, you should target every single inland and coastal area that has a beach home. They have plenty bordering the great lakes as well. The only thing NO is really notable for is celebrations and cultural diversity. I've been there too, and it's like every other town. Particularly somewhat like the Bay Area. There really aren't any huge cities in this country that don't have a crime problem either within the city and/or it's suburbs.

[Alex+R 0]

Being that I live just outside(thank God) the S***hole that trys to put its self out as a cultural mecca etc. etc. I have found that a good share of the people that live in this area are just plain lazy and stupid. It's all about having a good time. Your freaking house can be falling apart, but it's more important to have an expensive big party than to fix your house.

Oh and nearly three years later you've still got blue tarps on your roof rather than get it fixed. Or your still living in FEMA trailer crying about your road home money instead of getting your A$$ to work and getting the repairs done.

Streets three years later still lined with flooded out houses sitting empty and vacant an eyesore and just asking for more trouble. These people build houses in places where you wouldn't be allowed to build in most states. You ask them why would you build in an area that floods and they have no good answer.

By the way back when New Orleans was founded the indians to them where the best places to build were that wouldn't flood and those places didn't flood during Katrina. Now if you go look at where the breach in the canal was, there is the top of the canal and thirty feet below are houses. Now I don't know about you but if I build a house I want it to be above water not thirty feet below.

It's not all bad here I have met some sweet and genuine people but they are by far the minority. Most are whiners looking for a handout or to do the least work possible with the lowest quality. And they don't even care if they make crappy wages just as long as they don't have to work too hard. The others are totally arrogant whiners expecting that you should do something for them just because they think they deserve it. After all they're "somebody".

Government should have just let the place remain a dead zone and moved on.

Interesting. I had a lot of thoughts when I read this post. I wanted to try to explain to you that some people might not have the same values you do, and that that's OK, but I am left with only enough energy to say, wow, you're awful. Just the worst kind of person. Cheers!

[PlatyPius 5]

Being that I live just outside(thank God) the S***hole that trys to put its self out as a cultural mecca etc. etc. I have found that a good share of the people that live in this area are just plain lazy and stupid. It's all about having a good time. Your freaking house can be falling apart, but it's more important to have an expensive big party than to fix your house.

Oh and nearly three years later you've still got blue tarps on your roof rather than get it fixed. Or your still living in FEMA trailer crying about your road home money instead of getting your A$ to work and getting the repairs done.

Streets three years later still lined with flooded out houses sitting empty and vacant an eyesore and just asking for more trouble. These people build houses in places where you wouldn't be allowed to build in most states. You ask them why would you build in an area that floods and they have no good answer.

By the way back when New Orleans was founded the indians to them where the best places to build were that wouldn't flood and those places didn't flood during Katrina. Now if you go look at where the breach in the canal was, there is the top of the canal and thirty feet below are houses. Now I don't know about you but if I build a house I want it to be above water not thirty feet below.

It's not all bad here I have met some sweet and genuine people but they are by far the minority. Most are whiners looking for a handout or to do the least work possible with the lowest quality. And they don't even care if they make crappy wages just as long as they don't have to work too hard. The others are totally arrogant whiners expecting that you should do something for them just because they think they deserve it. After all they're "somebody".

Government should have just let the place remain a dead zone and moved on.

Interesting. I had a lot of thoughts when I read this post. I wanted to try to explain to you that some people might not have the same values you do, and that that's OK, but I am left with only enough energy to say, wow, you're awful. Just the worst kind of person. Cheers!

How so? That was my experience as well. Is it impossible to believe that there really ARE people who are lazy, useless, and stupid?

[Alex+R 0]

Maybe to some people who have just lost everything, maintaining a house beautiful is not their main concern? Maybe even before that, they might just have a different lifestyle?

And even before Katrina...why is it such a bad thing for people not to care if they make crappy wages, and have enjoying life be a more important value? Oh, because it's different from what this dude values?

[PlatyPius 5]

Maybe to some people who have just lost everything, maintaining a house beautiful is not their main concern? Maybe even before that, they might just have a different lifestyle?

And even before Katrina...why is it such a bad thing for people not to care if they make crappy wages, and have enjoying life be a more important value? Oh, because it's different from what this dude values?

So murder and robbery is just a "different lifestyle"? I have nothing against poor people....hell, I'M poor; money-wise. I work at a "crappy" job too. I do it because I like the job more than I like money. We're not talking about people making a lifestyle choice here...we're talking about criminals and "trash". People who would rather have a satellite dish than food in their kids' stomachs. People who would trade their food stamps for crack rather than baby formula.

Not everyone in NO is like that, of course, but that sort make up a much larger part of the population there than most other places. Did you see what happened to Houston when they gave all of the NO people homes? Crime doubled. I don't know how much more of a blindingly obvious clue someone would need to see that the problem with NO isn't just a "different lifestyle"....

[PlatyPius 5]

This article says crime went up 20%, but it's from 2006. I remember reading somewhere more recently that it was closer to 50%.

Texan Hosts Arm Against Crime Wave (Katrina - Houston)

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 8-27-2006 | Philip Sherwell

Texan hosts arm against crime wave

By Philip Sherwell in Houston

(Filed: 27/08/2006)

Hurricane Katrina may not have pounded Houston, but a year later the city is reeling from an ugly aftermath of the storm - a surging crime wave.

The murder rate in the Texan city has soared by almost 20 per cent since 150,000 Katrina evacuees arrived in August last year. According to police statistics, they are involved - as victim or killer - in one of every five homicides.

In the gun stores and on the shooting ranges of America's oil industry capital, business is booming as fearful locals take their defence into their own hands and buy concealed weapons licences that allow them to travel armed.

Although 9mm semi-automatic pistols are the easiest gun to carry, Jim Pruett, an arms salesman, says that his "looter shooter" - a pistol-grip, pump shotgun retailing at $370 (£200) - is also a big seller. "We've seen a 50 per cent increase in people taking our concealed weapons courses since the Katrina evacuees arrived," he said. "They are scared and they want to be able to defend themselves." Audrey Nelson, 63, a native of Trowbridge, Wiltshire, who moved to Houston 30 years ago with her Texan husband, Phil, knows all about the reality of the chilling crime statistics.

Despite the violent reputation of some American cities, the school headmistress never imagined that she would be too scared to take her dog for an evening walk around the affluent Houston suburb of Westchase. That was before thousands of Katrina evacuees were moved into nearby blocks of flats, which had previously been scheduled for demolition to make way for luxury condominiums. Just a few minutes' walk from the Nelsons' well-kept home, a 64-year-old man was shot dead at a car wash earlier this month when he refused to hand over money to four young men armed with a pistol. Three teenagers from New Orleans have since been arrested and the murder weapon was also traced to the Louisiana city.

"We opened our arms to these people after what they had experienced," said Mrs Nelson, who has lived in the area for 24 years. "At my school, we collected clothes and toys and sleeping bags; anything we could to help them. But now we've seen what's happened to our pleasant community and realised that many never plan to leave, the mood has changed."

The Rev Walter Ellis, the vicar at the Church of the Ascension in Westchase, said: "There was a tremendous groundswell of goodwill and support for these people, but that is fast drying up. "This was a nice place to live with a community atmosphere before, but now car-jackings and homicides are a way of life around here. "People are scared to walk alone at night. Some are getting guns, some are getting dogs, some are getting new security fences, many just want to leave. It's a great shame."

In Westchase, residents do not want to talk about buying guns, fearful it will only make them more of a target. But a local business-woman said: "I always hated guns and would never touch one. I could not understand the mindset of the women I knew in Houston who not only owned and handled guns but drove around town with one in the car. "But never is a word we should not use. Six months ago, with my blessing, my husband bought a gun and went, with our 23-year-old daughter, to a class to learn how to use it, clean it and learn the laws that go with it. After another recent murder, I now have one too, although it still freaks me out." Texas offered shelter to nearly 400,000 evacuees from Louisiana at one stage, including thousands ferried by bus from the squalid nightmare of the New Orleans Superdome. About 250,000 are still scattered across the state.

Many lost everything in the storm and are now dependant on government subsidies to support them in Texas. Sixty per cent of the evacuees are unemployed and two-thirds say they expect to make Houston their permanent home.

New Orleans has set up an office to help exiles head home, but many Houstonites suspect that there is no concerted drive to organise their return. It is a sad twist that some long-term locals are now planning to evacuate Westchase instead.