Sea Level Wasn't the Problem

For those who continue to blame New Orleans people for the Katrina-related disaster, on the ground that "what do you expect when you live in a bowl below sea level?", here comes today's Times-Picayune to provide an inconvenient fact. In a story about the prevalent choice of those with damaged homes to stay in their home parishes or at least their home state when they make the choice to rebuild or buy a new home, the paper helpfully points this out about heavily damaged St. Bernard--not, as the national media folk call it, "St Bernard's"--Parish:

An estimated 98 percent of the damaged property in St. Bernard sustained major damage, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency statistics. The storm surge combined with canal breaches to inundate Chalmette and Arabi, even where land was several feet above sea level.

Gee, if I read and saw only the national media, I'd be wondering what caused those canal breaches.