Comments on: Bad Pumps (New Ones) In New Orleans

Defective Equipment Reportedly Installed As Feds Scrambled To Get Ready For 2006 Hurricane Season

[musty2u]

Our navy in its infinite wisdom will plow millions into old ships once or twice, but then there comes a time the ships are sunk to make reefs for the fishies. So should be the story of New Orleans. Similarly, the navy has commissioned four ships bearing the name New Orleans. Two cruisers, one assault ship, one transport dock, and even the Confederate States had one names CSS New Orleans. To let the city of New Orleans be covered with water seems a reasonable approach. Let the ocean and seas take back what it wants. Goodness, if ALGORE's blatherings have anything about them we can't start holding back rising oceans very long.

[ajaxrose1]

When you live in what is essentially a BOWL you surely can't be surprised if it gets filled up once in awhile. What I still don't uderstand is, beyond humanitarian relief, why it's the rest of the world's responsibility to rebuild it. It wasn't there when the first people decided to settle there, so where did it come from? They just decided to live there and someone ELSE built a city for them? I doubt it. It takes time and work to get something like that raised up again. The rest of the world cannot stop turning until New Orleans is rebuilt; it has to keep going. What are the people of New Orleans doing to get it going again? I noticed everyone could put in time and effort into a nice big Mardi Gras parade. Apply the same priciples to cleaning up and rebuilding, but expect it will take a little more time than planning a parade.

P.S. to stevenga777: The only thing wrong with this country today is that there are too many people expecting OTHERS to always take care of them and everything else. Plain and simple. If you want to live in a socialist country where your Big Brother will take care of you, then there are plenty of them on the planet. Move.

[ander241]

There is some correct information here. Yes, New Orleans is a wonderful city deserving to be rebuilt. The original city was built on the 20% that didn't flood during Katrina. Every year there was the same article in the newspaper about the "worst case scenario" which would be a direct hit with Lake Pontchartrain backing up entirely and filling the city with 30 feet of water that would take months to drain with no responders and hundreds of thousands dead. The Corps always said that they couldn't fund a better program because it would take too long and too much money.

Instead, just before THE season, five men surveyed the 100+ miles of levees and did this in time to get together for an expensive lunch at noon. The Corps is culpable for knowing that those levees that breached weren't even properly built in the first place. If they had been, the city would not have flooded. We did not have the worst case scenario which would have involved a direct hit coming up the mouth of the Mississipi River for 100 miles raising the river, which functions between it and Lake Pontchartrain with a finger system. Then the lake would act like a huge tidal wave.

As for the Dutch system. They came over here and viewed the systems with the local guys and I have no idea why in hell they did not use their system. It is brilliant and doesn't rely on the stupidity of man.

Still we are waiting for the help we deserve and are treated as if we are forgotten.

We won't forget!

[ander241]

Newster1, the city is 6 ft. below sea level. Look at FL. Built on swamplands with more fingers of land built out from it. There is a wonderful diversity of cultures, more National Historic Registry buildings than any city in the U.S. Writers have long found the flavor of the city worth living and writing in. Film industry people live here. Jazz came from New Orleans. We have out own cuisine and the restaurants rate number one often. The arts are prolific; there are museums (even the National D-Day Museum is located here and not D.C.); galleries; film and writers' societies; large parks and boulevards, incredible architecture; a non-judgmentalism that is unique in any city; festivals, parades, celebrations of holidays;a world-class zoo and aquariaum. The Mississipi River made this a viable place for ports and access to the middle of the country. Commerce!

These reasons make this city worth saving. What happened would not have happened if the government and the Corps of Engineers had done their job correctly. And now, they continue as in the past. For this to happen to any city in our country is a disgrace.

As for protection along the coast 100 miles down the MS River, global warming and lack of care by the government has worn away the natural protection of lower La.

Where else could you live surrounded by history, awake to live music and the smell of wonderful cooking every day?

[alphaa10-2009]

bm6005BTW said, "I'm a college graduate, just disappointed in the effects to our country by relying too much on education and too little on experience and common sense!!"
---

The Bush Syndrome has little to do with education but rather a lack of it or a consumate failure to employ it. Education is, as you imply, more than "book larnin'", and should represent the synergy from a number of resources. Any educated person understands a degree is only the beginning.

However, aside from the sheer incompetence and ignorance of the Bush regime, its most damaging element is rank corruption and criminality. Failure of character and a void of ethics at the highest levels of government cannot fail to "trickle down" on the rest of us, as it is now.

The Murphy's Law corollary is, those who already understand the lesson are left to pay for it-- the rest of the country must pay for the failures and omissions of Bush and his criminal consorts.

[alphaa10-2009]

Will this flow of garbage from the Bush family ever stop? It reminds us, like nothing else, of the chaos, dysfunction and rank corruption surrounding a third-world despot and his family members, all partners in crime.

The monitoring and oversight which should have been in place after Katrina-- especially with the US Army Corps of Engineers-- was notably absent. A post-Katrina GOP congress simply handed taxpayer billions to Bush friends, principally Halliburton, in no-bid contracts.

There was no oversight because the GOP wanted none. Not only that, the leadership level of the US Army Corps of Engineers, like that of FEMA, has been plundered of committed professionals by the same Bush politics which fired eight US prosecutors.

This is a circus, and Bush is the (criminal) ringmaster wearing a clown face.

[bm6005]

From a "shining light on a hill" the USA has gone to the rustbelt of the world in everything from education to human rights to being a beacon of freedom to the world. The USA is in decline.
Posted by stevenga777

As we've turned over more and more of our decision-making to highly educated idiots as opposed to those who know the subject matter we've seen an exponential rise in governmental and business stupidity. Allowing college profs (Wolfowitz), Lawyers (Chertoff) & MBA's to control and make decisions for us is one of the greatest mistakes ever made in America. These generalists couldn't pour **** out of a boot, with the instructions stamped on the heel. BTW I'm a college graduate, just disappointed in the effects to our country by relying too much on education and too little on experience and common sense!!

[cbse3]

to stevenga777

and the pumps used to drain the Zuyder Zee in Dec of 1916 were the A.B. Wood design, a New Orleanean engineer see the following for info
http://files.asme.org/ASMEORG/C
ommunities/History/Landmarks/5485.pdf. these pumps are still in use in New Orleans and are recgonized dedicated national landmarks

[lars2008-2009]

anopinion1

The original city of New Orleans was built above sea level. Those areas didn't flood during Katrina. However, as is so often the case with cities, New Orleans grew and the lower lying areas were settled as well. The levies were built to fix this problem and for the most part they did for a very long time. People felt safe and continued to build for generations. Then cam the perfect storm.

Congress was asked for decades for extra funds to reinforce the levies but supposedly it just wasn't a priority so the money didn't come. An ounce of prevention?

Why are we spending a trillion dollars trying to rebuild Iraq, a country who's population doesn't want us there, and we can't afford to rebuild a great American City and protect it with an adequit system of levies and pumps?

[stevenga777]

We should just get the Dutch from Holland to build our ***** and canals. They have done a fabulous job reclaiming land from the ocean.

From a "shining light on a hill" the USA has gone to the rustbelt of the world in everything from education to human rights to being a beacon of freedom to the world. The USA is in decline.