Another Stimulus? Who Needs It? Not New Orleans

New Orleans, by all reports, was filled to the brim over the July 4 weekend, as visitors to the annual Essence Festival packed the hotels and the Superdome. It's a three-day festival of R&B concerts and "empowerment seminars", and people come from all over the country, dressed up as for church.

Something less publicized, and less celebratory, happened at about the same time in the city: the Army Corps of Engineers local chief signed off on a plan to choose the plan for the three canals whose floodwalls catastrophically failed in 2005, a plan the Corps' own staff has critiqued as less effective at preventing flooding than an alternative plan.

The problem, according to the Corps: the so-called Plan B is too expensive.

The Corps' top leaders have said they don't have the estimated $3.4 billion or the congressional authorization needed to build the more expansive systems...

Three point four billion? Used to sound like a lot of money, until you total the cost of the devastation caused the last time the Corps shorted the design and construction of the floodwalls along those outfall canals. Used to sound like a lot of money, before three quarters of a trillion poured out of Washington in search of "shovel-ready" projects that could create jobs. Shovel ready? Job creation? Protect a major city from catastrophe? Check. So who didn't ask Congress to appropriate the $3.4 bil? Who still isn't? Hello, Moscow, get me the red phone.

The good news?

Leaders of the [Corps] have said they will engineer and build the new stations to easily accommodate the more complex system preferred by the local community if congressional approval and money become available in the future.

Of course they will. They already built one temporary system of pumps (about which, possibly, more this week, although one knowledgeable source described the temporary pumps as "pieces of shit"). The Corps likes building things, or, more accurately, letting and supervising the contracts for building things, on which they slap a percentage. They'll build the damn things as often as we let them, and maybe, one day, they'll build them right.

Maybe a certain President needs a personal empowerment seminar in New Orleans.

Comments

[GBGB]

Hmmm. Liberals called Bush incompetent (which I agree), a racist, and called for Bush's head with respect to his handling of Katrina and New Orleans. Now, even though everyone on this post seems to agree that Obama's administration is not handling the levee system the way it should be handled, but the response is a polite "We need to fix the levees. Call your local Congressman."

[Harry Shearer - Huffpost Blogger]

I believe I also mentioned calling/writing the White House. And, if you check the archives of my posts on the subject, you'll note no accusations of "racism" here, mainly because the destruction and suffering in New Orleans as the result of the federal levee failures affected all races and classes.

[RepugsOut08]

Yep, I never thought Bush's Katrina response was "racist." It was just callous indifference and incompetence concerning the poor regardless of race.
When Barbara Bush remarked that the NO refugees camped on the Astro Dome floor never had it so good, it was clear to me the W apple had not fallen far from the tree.

[nivek]

Reads like "The Towering inferno". Cut corners here, settle on inferior design there. Where is Steve McQueen when we need him? not in the White House.

[RepugsOut08]

Sounds like NO is being "triggered." You know, the health care reform idea that was floated around recently. Just trust the the insurance companies to get their act together in the next few years, and, if not, REAL health care will get "triggered" into existance at some vague future date.
Gee thanks. I just hope I can avoid getting sick or going bankrupt from medical bills, while I wait for REAL health care to finally "trigger" into existance.
Now NO is being asked to accept the (possible?) "triggering" of an adequate flood protection system at some vague future date. Until that magic moment in time, NO can sweat out every hurricane season with an inadequate levee system threatening to drown more people and property.
Obama has clearly abandoned NO. I just don't see how you can call it any other way. $3.4 billion is chump change to Goldman Sachs, but could save a city! Goldman Sachs cannot be allowed to fail, but NO is, apparently, expendable. You folks have every right to be angry.
Obama owes NO, plain and simple. The Katrina debacle was very useful in driving home his message that an Obama administration would be a "change" from Bush/Katrina-like incompetence and indifference. How will it look if, heaven forbid, another levee failure happens on Obama's watch? Good luck in 2012 if that happens, Mr. president.

[backhandpath]

Excellent point! "Triggering" is exactly how the Corps manipulates massive engineering contracts between congressional districts. That is what the Corps General Rude kept doing in the Congressional Committee, rather than answer a question.
This is how the Corps plays different states and districts off of each other so the Corps is constantly in motion, either repairing their failed engineering or engineering more failed engineering so they can re-engineer a study to find yet more bad engineering to repair with huge engineering contracts for their congressional districts... somebody stop me. please?

If Obama cannot see his way through to address New Orleans, then he will not see MS Governor Haley Babar coming to bury him in the next election. And, Babar is coming make no mistake. And, if Babar picks our Child-Governor Bobby "Brady" Jindal as his VP Monkey (Zephir) then you can hang it up for the poor bogged-down and distracted Incumbent.

Yeah you right.

[backhandpath]

Harry,
that 3.4 Billion is the revised costs estimates that the Corps came up for Option 2 AFTER congress authorized and funded the initial flood safety measures..
This point was stressed repeatedly by Senator Vitter in the recent committee hearing. Y'all can watch the hearing here: http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_id=c7026be1-802a-23ad-4fa3-4c8ed0b6d074 and Senator Vitter clearly demonstrates the Exact Wording of the Congressional Mandate --to which the brave Corps General kept bouncing the answers back to "let me talk to our lawyers". He never answered the question.

The Corps does this Costs Bumping regularly, usually right now at the start of hurricane season. They did it last year with Morganza to the Gulf surge protection, flood control system: from $800 Million to $11,000,000,000, Billion with a capital B. They did it again this year with the Surge Protection Structure in the MRGO, nearly tripling the original costs.
Unfortunately for New Orleans the Corps has hired an expensive PR firm to mix up the local media view of this asce'fork and hence was able to literally drop this latest slam-dunk in the laps of a confused and misinformed citizenry, to wit: the American Public.
I would like all of you reading to bare in mind: once the Corps gets through with New Orleans the rest of you will be a piece of cake.
You will eat this cake and you will like it.
Or you will drown.

[Alice Hopkins]

It's just not flood protection we need, it's competent people in our own house.Too many people have showed up just to pad their resumes, calling us New Orleanians "Those People". We have a great head of Orleans Parish Schools (Mr.Koppel), & aChicago carpetbagger that has bankrupted the Recovery School District.There is so much work to be done which would employ LOCAL people & stimulate our local non-tourist economy.FEMA would only employ Texas &/or out-of-state to "fix' us.Jindal is a wash as gov,can't find his Dick Cheney with both hands and a roadmap;too busy running for POTUS.NOLA is ma cher chez, the home of my family & my heart.At least Nagin will be gone next year,so where can I sign up as a volunteer for Harry Shearer for Mayor.My city needs a passionate advocate, and Harry you are IT! Thanks, a New Orleans public school teacher

[Mortifyd]

People, move out of the floodplain. Seriously.

[backhandpath]

No thank you. I like St Louis just fine, errrah, I mean Iowa City. D'OH! I mean Grand Rapids... Fargo? Las Vegas? San Antonio? New York? Sacramento? Seattle? Dallas? Jackson, MS? Washington, DC? Boston? Buffalo? Enid OK? Boulder, CO? Denver? Detroit?
To which city in which floodplain do you refer?
I am absolutely Mortified that you do not realize so much of this country is built in floodplains, and would be willing to bet that you live in one of them and within 30 miles of a Corps of Engineers flood control structure.
Unless you had a railroad, cities did not grow without a river running through it. Name one. I challenge you to name one major city in this country that is not situated in a floodplain. .

[brennandoherty0]

How would you like it if someone told you to leave the land that you were raised in, you know and love. Man do I hope Bobby Jindal runs for president then we can get the help New Orleans needs. If you are going to fix the problem, fix it now. You know if something wrong happened to New York again they would be all up on it like they should be. If something happens in New Orleans again then nothing will happen. It is a shame.

[winningticket]

People move out of the earth quake zones and the tornado alleys, seriously.

[Bienville]

The danger is the ocean, not the river. Seriously.

[twofish]

Wait'll the New Madrid fault in Missouri slips again. Last quake in 1811 rang the church bells in Boston. And a big one is way overdue. No place on the surface of the earth is safe from everything.

[esplanaderidge]

Damn Harry, I wish that you weren't the only person talking about this. I don't need to tell you what season we're in here in New Orleans so this is very important to me and all of my friends, neighbors, and family.

I have to say that this administrations lack of attention to our needs here is very disheartening. As an Obama supporter, I am very disappointed with his silence on this issue. I know that there are things that are happening abroad that are dominating his agenda, but, honestly, rectifying this issue is the raison d'etre of the government.

We need to spearhead a movement to declare weather as a member of the axis of evil and treat hurricanes like sleeper cells. Human terrorists are only apparent after they've done their damage. We can see hurricanes coming for days. And we know they're coming, sooner or later.

This is no place or time to nickel and dime a solution that will protect the lives, homes, and livelihoods of the good people of this great city.

Thanks for being a voice for us Harry. It means a lot, at the very least, to me.

(Hows about a Folksmen reunion at The Maple Leaf?)

[backhandpath]

I vote for Spinal Tap to ride da'Krewe du Vieux!

Unfortunately Brad Pitt failed the residency-time requirement to run for mayor.
But, errrrah, ahem... don't we know a handsome couple who has lived in New Orleans over 5 years?
Hmmmmm? Harry?

[rongbeech]

Harry-always glad to hear your sane voice coming out of New Orleans. Thanks for getting it out there. How soon we forget...

[LMPE]

If we want to build a serious flood prevention system, then we are going to have to raise taxes, have regulation, and ensure that the government maintains the system.

Yes, I know. This is anathema to what the far right wing likes.

[luziannagirl]

It seems like no matter which way New Orleans jumps on the partisan politics spectrum--­-Republica­n or Democrat, liberal (well, moderate) or conservative, corrupt or less corrupt, they've been screwed regarding public infrastructure. Levees, police, schools, health; all look like sides of the same coin, (though without adequate levees and hurricane-­protective marshes, the other public infrastructural arms really don't matter because the next Big One will wash them away, too).

What do you think needs to happen?

In a nutshell, keeping it not bullet-point simple, but Twitter simple, what do you think New Orleanians, Louisianians and fellow Americans could individually do to help change this sorry and sad situation?

[Harry Shearer - Huffpost Blogger]

Call your Congressperson. Call the White House. Right now there's no political pressure from outside Louisiana to do this thing right. That doesn't change, nothing changes.

[marymac]

Jeebus Gawd, Harry, my congress critter is Lungren. But I will write Obama.

[backhandpath]

Hey lusiannagirl! You can watch the committee hearing I linked above, which is about this exact problem that Harry has cited. Then everyone can email their reps who are on that Committee. Please do it soon, otherwise I cannot see a way to stop the Corps from executing a sub-par design for the Pumps (which they have doggedly advanced all along in the Face of sounder engineering) and also refuse to replace the rest of their rotting flood walls on the 17th Street Canal where one of their engineering failures occurred.

What happened in that committee meeting is extremely important because our congress was asking our Corps of Engineers WTF, and the Corps Commander basically blew us all off since the Corps was already moving along with its own plans in the first place. Of course they priced the far superior design of Options 2 and 2a so high so as to kill it. Their cost estimates are true?
Doubt it, since the Corps is not about what is True.

[RepugsOut08]

I have called the White House and my reps before, and I will gladly do it again to help.
This time I'm gonna ask the White House and my Dem reps, how they think it will look to voters in the next elections, if, heaven forbid, those levees fail AGAIN on the Democrat's watch?