Louisiana Gov. Outraged Over Faulty Pumps

Army Corps Of Engineers Installed Defective Pumps In New Orleans Before 2006 Hurricane Season

(AP)  Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco lashed out at the Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday for installing defective pumps at three major drainage canals just before the start of last summer's hurricane season.

"This could put a lot of our people in jeopardy," Blanco said. "It begs the question: Are we really safe?"

She called for a congressional investigation into how the Corps allowed it to happen.

Citing internal documents, The Associated Press reported Tuesday that the Corps installed the 34 pumps last year in a rush to fix the city's flood defenses, despite warnings from one of its experts that the machinery was defective and likely to fail in a storm.

At the same time, the Corps, the White House and state officials were telling residents that it was safe to come back to New Orleans, which was devastated in August 2005 when Hurricane Katrina breached the city's floodwalls.

On Wednesday, Donald Powell, the administration's Gulf Coast hurricane recovery czar, said that he was never shown the memo, and that assurances he made that New Orleans was as safe as or safer than it was before Katrina were based on information he got from the Corps.

"We were asking the Corps to do the job as fast as possible to get the condition of the levee back to make it as safe as possible," Powell said. "That was the primary goal above all goals — safety in the region."

Because the 2006 hurricane season was mild, the new pumps were never put to the test.

The Corps and the politically connected manufacturer of the equipment, Moving Water Industries Corp. of Deerfield Beach, Fla., are still struggling to get the 34 pumps, designed and built under a $26.6 million contract, working properly.

The pumps have been plagued by excessive vibration, overheated engines, broken hoses and blown gaskets.

"You want to build confidence, but you have to tell it like it is," said Gwen Bierria, 65, who is rebuilding her home with her husband next to the London Avenue canal, one of two canals that were breached during Katrina and flooded vast sections of the city.

"It's like being pregnant, sooner or later it's going to show," she said. "And Katrina was a big-time show."

MWI is owned by J. David Eller and his sons. Eller was once a business partner of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in a venture called Bush-El that marketed MWI pumps. And Eller has donated about $128,000 to politicians, the vast majority of it to the Republican Party, since 1996, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The U.S. Justice Department sued MWI in 2002, accusing it of fraudulently helping Nigeria obtain $74 million in taxpayer-backed loans for overpriced and unnecessary water-pump equipment. The case has yet to be resolved.

As for whether the city was as safe as the Corps claimed, Powell said: "We got through a hurricane season without a hurricane so we didn't have to answer that question."

But he said residents should not panic as the new hurricane season approaches. "The corps is working as fast it can to get the systems back up. The levee system is better than it has ever been," he said.

The Corps said it decided to press ahead with installation of the pumps because some pumping capacity was better than none.

The 34 pumps were installed in the drainage canals that take water from this bowl-shaped, below-sea-level city and deposit it in Lake Pontchartrain. They represented a new ring of protection that was added to New Orleans' flood defenses after Katrina. The city also relies on miles of levees and hundreds of other pumps in various locations.

[jebby_one]

Well here's Mr. Broussard. Anyone who hasn't seen this spectacle has missed a gem. You have to see the entire thing.

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=1085370950&fr=yfp-t-501

It's all a lie, but otherwise good for comic relief.

Anyone who leaves an elderly parent in a nursing home that's below sea level and in the path of a cat-5 hurricane should be arrested for elderly abuse.

[jebby_one]

where have CBS and the Democrats been hiding Aaron Broussard?

we're still waiting to here how his friend Rodrigue's 97 year old mother was able to make all those telephone calls from underwater.

It's mid-week, we could all use a few laughs.

[jebby_one]

Don't worrk, If Louisiana floods again Texas will rescue them .. again.

Texans have a better sense of independence and self reliance than the people in Louisiana.

[nothappyatall]

"MWI is owned by J. David Eller and his sons. Eller was once a business partner of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in a venture called Bush-El that marketed MWI pumps. And Eller has donated about $128,000 to politicians, the vast majority of it to the Republican Party, since 1996, "

Oh yes,why am I NOT surprised? $26 million for 34 pieces of krap that they knew were krap, and yet another connection to the BUSH regime and his crooked family and party.

[hawksprings]

Dustfulman, what are you saying here? It's confusing

"No, I am not endorsing The Democrats. But with The Democrats, somebody will not toe The Party Line. With The democrats, somebody will talk."

What does this mean?

[dustfullman]

How can anyone continue to believe or trust in anything that The Republican Party is involved in?
No, I am not endorsing The Democrats. But with The Democrats, somebody will not toe The Party Line. With The democrats, somebody will talk. Until we get of this "government", we are all in great danger.

[dustfullman]

Is there anything that can be believed when it comes from this administration? Lie piles atop lie time after time. The Republicans continue to wander along from problem to crisis to disaster. Stumble, bumble and fumble is the motto of The Republican Party.

[sero5]

A faulty governor that likes to divert blame away from herself has earned a recall election. Louisianans deserve better leadership.

[hawksprings]

zootallures2, you need to take your meds.

...

[zootallures2]

Where is the body count CBS? How many children did your zionist master Chertoff leave to drown? You are ALL no better than that John Couey and his accomplices. No different. Why don't you make John Couey head of FEMA? You are sick nation of sadistic, godless, money grubbing morons. Soon I'm going to need a barf bag to go to a store to look at any of you... how IRONIC!!! You are the popular ones...lol. At being satanic monsters. Used to be I felt proud to see F16's flying over head and mad that hippies spit on the troops. Now I can't help myself to lose my lunch on them. Yea, you are rich, you are winners, you got the hot styles and looks...lol. More like hidious trolls bobbing out of cesspool of corpses.

[hawksprings]

seamusjohns, you're right.

New Orleans and Louisiana had 100 years to get ready for a Cat 5 Hurricane, and when Katrina, a Cat 3, hits, Nagin and Blanco blame George Bush while School Buses sit in flood waters.

Liberals RARELY take responsibility for their own failures.

[seamusjohnso]

This woman is a piece of garbage. She and that *** Nagin both need to be tried for crimes against humanity.

Everyone was so quick to blame Bush, this is the Gov who is responsible for her state!

People need to learn to do for themselves, to rely on the feds is just plain dumb.

More political grand-standing by the dems. First the repubs did it, now these morons are taking their turn.

I hope you people realize that there is no difference between these two parties and get off your our team vs. their team moronic mentality.

[hawksprings]

"This could put a lot of our people in jeopardy," Blanco said. "It begs the question: Are we really safe?"

Blanco, with you and Nagin in power, no, the people of New Orleans are not safe. Katrina proved that.

Thanks for asking.

[zootallures2]

Baloney. You told the people to go back to their homes, the levee was fine. Just like the people were told to go back to their office on 9/11. You are sick murdering loonies. What you got now? New Orleans under occupation forces? You are a lying nut job like Nagin, Bush, Chertoff, and the whole criminal elite government. Yawl should have been hung for what happened there. But lucky for you the public is just as selfish and sadistic as you are.

[cpjl1]

If your name was Tom Clancy you couldn't have made this one up.

[musty2u]

Sure, the governor doesn't want the folks from the basin to move up near her digs. Too bad. Shut down the pumps, tell the folks to leave and let the lake settle where she does.