I admit, I am clueless when it comes to the landscape and engineering of the Missippi River. What I do know though is Emergency Management and Jurisdictional areas of responsibility.

Levees and land management in New Orleans the responsibility of the people and government of the city and parish of New Orleans and the State of Louisiana. Any money budgeted by the Federal government should merely be to augment and assist, not do the job for them.

For that matter, so should the disaster response and recovery.

AMEN!

and for all of the non religous...

RIGHT ON!

John, in his case, yes in answer to your question.  He is the one trick pony.  Bush is responsible for the cruxifiction of Christ, the black Plague, the Flu on 1918/19. And every other disaster of man since the dawn of time.  Just ask him.

Bush did cut 44 mil for levee re-inforcement studies to pay for his war in Iraq. It's a fact. Wether or not it is relevant to the disaster is still up for speculation.

Bush did cut 44 mil for levee re-inforcement studies to pay for his war in Iraq. It's a fact. Wether or not it is relevant to the disaster is still up for speculation.

last I checked, books would not have helped the levees regardless of when they were read.

Fixing the levees doesn't help. The reson the levees failed is because of coastal errosion. If you doubt me, Discovery did a very informative special on it last night.

New Orleans is a MAJOR port that helps supply the entire United States. Protecting that area as a hell of a lot more important then fighting Saddam in Iraq. How can we find $300 billion for Iraq and so little to protect a major American City and Port?

Yeah! Funding to repair broken stuff never does any good! That levee was just like a welfare sinkhole, consuming the good American citizens' well-earned tax dollars. American tax money should go into non black-hole zones, like rebuilding Iraq. Let the levees pull their own weight, or fall by the wayside.

See, I keep hearing about this phantom construction barge that was working on a bridge of Hammond Highway at Bucktown between Orpheum Ave. and Bellaire Dr., which is on Lake Pontchartrain, that broke loose from the construction site and struck the levee, causing it to fail.

New Orleans is a MAJOR port that helps supply the entire United States

No doubt. Only one major problem, your off topic dumb ass. Stay on topic or get off of my blog.

Yeah! Funding to repair broken stuff never does any good! That levee was just like a welfare sinkhole, consuming the good American citizens' well-earned tax dollars. American tax money should go into non black-hole zones, like rebuilding Iraq. Let the levees pull their own weight, or fall by the wayside

again ... this is not about the welfare system. This is about wether or not funding the levees would have done anything to protect New Orleans. This is about the wetlands and marsh land of south Louisiana.

historyishere

I haven't heard that, but I am in north Louisiana. I am just trying to figure out how to protect my property now.

Yes ... our refugees are stealing from us. The just put one of the hospitals on lock down because they are stealing everything not tied down.

Hey, John.

I hope you are doing ok. I just wanted to add my $.02 about the levee stuff. Back 10 years ago when I was a geology major we talked about how bad the levee issues were there in New Orleans. They pretty much said then there wasn't much they could do to fix it and it WOULD be a major disaster area in the not so distant future.

One other thing that seriously compounds the issues is that the delta that New Orleans was built on has been sinking over the years as the deposited sediments have been naturally compressed over time. Without the regular flooding to stack more sediment on top of the old layers, you wind up having lost a signifigant amount of elevation over the years. Unless you plan on flooding the city every year there's just no way to keep this from happening.

I agree that it would be a shame to lose such a cultural center, but the solution to this problem is not going to be simple at all. I do think they will (and should) rebuild, but unless we want to be going through this again in 50-100 years (or much, much less) they're going to have to get very creative.

*hugs*

-Erin

Lets apply you idea of pulling their own weight to Iraq. After all, we should be helping Americans BEFORE we go helping others. The reason the Fed must be the lead is the size of the project and it impacts the economy of the entire country not just the three states hit by the storm! New Orleans is the LARGEST PORT in the US. Also, what happened to, " One Nation Under GOD"? The size and scope of the needed changes were in the hands of Bush who did NOTHING to address these needs. He cut the money that was being provided. Now we have not only the repair the levees but rebuild that entire area - about the size of England. The cost est is not up to $150 Billion and will be a lot more before this is done. We also have to wonder what will happen if another storm hits this area given the damage done by Katrina.

I hope you are doing ok.

I am. I am always doing better though when you drop by.

Thanks for your comments. Coming from somebody who has actually done her homework, your information only bolsters the reasons to rebuild with a good plan.