Katrina Revisited

[jheidt2543]

Here is a link to a news story about a lawsuit brought against the Army Corps of Engineers claiming their ineptitude lead to the disasterous flooding in New Orleans. The Army Corps lost the first of what promises to be many lawsuits.

http://news.aol.com/article/negligence-ruling-on-katrina-flood-may/774043

It reminds me of a book I read years ago called "Dams and Other Disasters - 100 Years of the Army Corps of Engineers".

However, some of what I've read points more to political failures, rather than engineering ones. Any thoughts guys?

 

[BigH]

Jim - haven't read the article yet - but it seems like the hindsighters are always going to win in our society today.

 

[jheidt2543]

BigH:

Yea, it is really easy to play "Monday Morning Quarterback", but what they forget is that it is not just the engineering that goes into these projects. The controler of the purse has as much to say about what gets done and how it is done.

The govenmental bodies that cut funds for these projects have a short memory when a failure occures. The political decisions to cut corners, like designing to a 50 year storm instead of a 75 or 100 year one, may save a lot of money up front, but when disaster strikes everyone's memory fades pretty quickly.

 

[BigH]

Sort of like the planned "deficit" due to the Health Care revamp, eh? You are right, though. Keep that initial cost to a minimum. Was the levee there before the housing? If so, maybe the developers should be blamed . . . .