Answers from Army Corps of Engineers on unwatering New Orleans

I've seen reports that they have been dropping 3,000 lb sandbags all night and it's not helping. They are also using 15,000 lb concrete barriers with no success.

I figured it wouldn't take long before people starting pointing fingers at everyone else and bitching that enough isn't being done. Maestri, the New Orleans Emergency Operations Director, is already blaming FEMA for not doing more fast enough.

There is only so much people can do...

 

But more lives were in danger without the breach being filled. You just create more victims to rescue. Yes, tough decisions have to be made, but I would think they would be made to minimize the potential for loss of life.

 

I just looked at the web site - the 411 whatever site.

Looks like it is run by someone that is fruitloops. I would take anything on it with a grain of salt.

:dis:

 

Having documented contingency plans for KNOWN RISKS would have been a good start. Their response has been a day late and a few billion dollars short. A documented and rehearsed plan should have been in place to deal with situations that they KNEW or should have known would occur.

 

The thing with Morgan City is that the Mississippi River Spillway surrounds the city. We are actually at, or around, sea-level, but once the spillway is opened, flooding of MC would be inevitable. They've been warning us about this since the great floods of the 70s (which I'm WAY too young to remember--I wasn't even born yet.) Of course MC has between 15-20,000 people whereas Baton Rouge Metro area is probably much greater than 500,000. Do the math. 20,000 people to relocate or half a million? With having said that, MC rarely ever floods really bad. Of course if it rains pretty hard, we can get water up to the sidewalk, but the pumps are pretty efficient. Widespread flooding like in the New Orleans area wouldn't be as bad here since we're at sea-level.

 

Well said. I was about to post the same thing.

 

The problem I see with fixing the levees now while there is still water pressures is that the reason the levve broke was the fact that that was the weakest spot in the levee and the pressure had to be released.

So in that frame of thinking if they fix the breach where it is now, want the next weakest point become a breach also?

 

We have these in Morgan City.

 

As I understand it, they also have those in NOLA. They just elected to leave them open (on the canals.)

 

They did. If I'm not mistaken, they had a major rehearsal just last year with federal, state and local officials.

There is no perfect answer. No way to think of every possible scenario. If people wouldn't be so damn stubborn to leave their homes when told to do so, fewer people would be dead.