Let There Be Light

Any reader of the independent reports on the causes of the New Orleans flooding disaster, and comparing them with the Corps' serial versions of the event -- in initial public statements, and ultimately in its "IPET" report -- has to have assumed a certain amount of, shall we say, tension between the independent engineers and the Army group. Obviously, the latter were investigating the failure of their own agency's work, always a dicey matter. Now, Wednesday's Times-Picayune reports that the tensions are flaring into the open. Dr. Ray Seed of UC Berkeley, co-leader (with Dr. Bob Bea) of the ILIT report, partially funded by the National Science Foundation, charges in a letter to the American Society of Civil Engineers that that group and the Corps systemically tried to thwart independent investigations. Among his charges: the Corps tried to keep independent investigators from arriving at the scene of the floodwall failures right after the event (the Corps claimed safety reasons, more skeptical observers might think the Corps wanted time to massage the evidence on the ground), and a fight over the independent team's ability to speak at a press conference that week, prompting the Dutch scientist on the team to write a one-word memo: "Coverup!!"

Seed blames upper management at the Corps and the ASCE, reports Mark Schleifstein:

As an example, he cites a joint project of both teams to prepare a technical field report for Congress, in advance of a Nov. 2, 2005, hearing. But Roth, the ASCE deputy, prohibited the ASCE team members from co-writing or signing on to the report by reminding them of a "nondisclosure" clause they had signed, preventing them from sharing their data with other researchers or the public.

What's the Latin for "let there be a nondisclosure clause"?

Comments

[campaignman]

I recently cited a blog comment to someone that the Bush administration cut funding for the repair of levees in New Orleans and, in response, was asked what Clinton did.

Who can cite the Clinton and Bush records leading up to the disaster and compare and contrast them?

I would appreciate getting the facts on this and don't have time to do the research.

[mcostello]

two problems:

1:Do you trust the government to do a job as huge as keeping the Mississippi river from filling the lowest ground, during a hurricane, or storm surge, or rain-based flood? It is a monumental undertaking in an ever-changing environment, and congress, in not really feeling NOLA's importance, always underfunds the project.

2: We have elected morons who don't believe that government should do any important work, and that government messes up everything it touches. So how do you expect said moron's to produce? And in an environment like NOLA, that is infamous for being corrupt with most of the money ending up in Bubba's Florida beach house.
Good luck Y'all,
Happy Holidays
HARRY RESPONDS: Buy yourself a Christmas gift, "The Storm" or "Path of Destruction". Then you might understand that the Mississippi River had nothing to do with the flooding of New Orleans. The River levees were fine. The levees that breaches were the more recent canal levees, along the 17th St., Orleans, London, and MR-GO structures. But thanks for the informed opinion anyway.

[realitytrumpsbull]

It's those damn smart dutch people again...
they get ONE story about a kid with his finger
in a ...water retaining wall, and all
of a sudden everyone wants to buy their wooden
shoes and smoke dope in public and stuff.
Hell, if they'd just shut up and buy their
oil and be happy like everybody else, then
everything would be ok. But no, but no,
they have to break the mold with their G.D.
windmills and being all self-sufficient
and stuff. How are you supposed to globalize
people that know how to make their own
stuff, anyway? Once you teach people to
read, there goes the whole show...what?
What? Dutch people were building sailboats
before it was cool? The Dutch practically
invented foreign trade??!?!?! Sonofa...

[AnOddGirl]

This is a test. It is only a test. If this had been a true conspiracy...

Cynical, a bit. Surprised? Not at all.

[SamEllison]

What's the Latin for "let there be a nondisclosure clause"?
Bendus Overus

[Steve]

"What's the Latin for 'let there be a nondisclosure clause'?"

In the case of the Corps, probably "Fiat sux".

Happy Thanksgiving to you, Mr Shearer, and to all New Orleaneans, no matter where they may be. Though I may occasionally disagree on some points or be a bit argumentative in this forum, please believe me when I say I hope that by this time next year FEMA and the Corps get their act together, The Road Home truly becomes a road home, and we're on our way to a healthy, ecologically sound, new New Orleans.

Yeah, and I'd like a pony, too.

[Ravenlea]

Shouldn't you last line be "what's Latin for "let there be a DISCLOSURE clause?" I think I read somewhere that there was a mistake in the calculations so the recent repairs haven't actually fixed much. Poor New Orleans. Poor all of us.

[antispin]

Who thinks up these acronyms? Instead of IPET, why not TOADY: "Trumpet On About Denial Yarn"?

"Seed's team was urged to delay going to New Orleans in the days immediately after the hurricane, Seed said, because of concerns about safety, and about getting in the way of the corps-financed IPET investigation -- even though the independent team members had a long history of similar investigations after natural and man-made disasters around the world."

[HoppinHill]

In the same Times Picayune article the ASCE President said, "We consider Professor Seed's letter to be confidential, and we will continue to honor that principle even if others do not.." It seems to me that these serious allegations which criticize government policy and are issues of public safety nationwide should "be brought into the light."

I am also fascinated that the Corps has a copy of Seed's letter but "will wait for the ASCE to respond before issuing its own response..."
This is interesting because Seed's letter implies collusion between the Corps and ASCE.