BP Commission Highlights Need for 8/29 Commission in New Orleans
New Orleans-- It's commendable that President Barack Obama has formed an independent commission to look at the root causes of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and the proper process for combating such catastrophes in the future.
The hearings begin in New Orleans today, Day 84 of the BP oil gusher.
Imagine such an independent commission created by President George Bush 84 days after the levees failed in metro New Orleans! Imagine an independent commission formed to look at the root causes of the flood protection failures that flooded 80% of New Orleans, destroyed 204,000 homes and killed over 1,500 people.
But no such commission ever happened. The White House did nothing while the organization responsible for the flood protection's performance, the Army Corps of Engineers, convened and led an investigation of its own work.
Inexplicably, neither Louisiana's governor nor the Louisiana congressional delegation protested such a clear conflict of interest even while Steve Ellis (Taxpayers for Common Sense), Scott Faber (Environmental Defense) and Ivor van Heerden (LSU Hurricane Center) all howled in unified protest. They wanted "to see some sort of independent federally authorized commission look into the levee breaches, in addition to the Corps."
And with 500,000 families displaced from their support base (family, neighborhood and place of worship), citizens could not collectively recognize the travesty, nor do anything to stop it.


Oct 10, 2005 - Mark Allain and Stanford Rosenthal near the 17th Street Canal
levee breach in the Lakeview neighborhood of New Orleans. Photo by Francis James To date, there has still been no truly independent analysis of the failures, and the decision making that led to those failures.
Not that that's strange or surprising. As noted by Steve Gorelick, Professor of Media Studies at Hunter College, bureaucracies trying to avoid facing some painful and inconvenient truth have a whole host of self-serving responses all prepared and ready to go:
- we need to move on and not be diverted from ____.
- to open old wounds only re-victimizes the survivors- too many of the voices and witnesses are either unavailable or have moved on with their lives
- we'd like to investigate, what would you suggest we spend the money on looking backward rather than building forward?
And finally,
- too much time has passed. What is the point now? (Obviously avoiding the fact that all the time that passed was because of their negligence.)
But Levees.org continues to demand the 8/29 Investigation Act, a truly independent bipartisan investigation of the flood protection failures during Katrina. And we emphasize that investigations taking place 5, 10, 15 years or more after the fact is not uncommon. Look at the recent long awaited results of a judicial inquiry into the killings of 14 unarmed demonstrators forty (40) years ago by British soldiers in North Ireland.
And as noted by historian and author John Barry, "a study five years out would have the benefit of fresh looks at the evidence collected for similar studies conducted in the immediate aftermath of the flooding."
Levees.org will continue its call for the 8/29 Investigation because history has a way of repeating itself. The strenuous objection to a thorough investigation coming from powerful interests needed to play itself out. And the folks pushing for truth needed to prove they were strong, were right, and would not give up.
Follow Sandy Rosenthal on Twitter: www.twitter.com/LeveesOrg
http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/1625/t/4583/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=3089
Levees.org continues to demand the 8/29 Investigation Act, a truly independent bipartisan investigation of the flood protection failures during Katrina.
Sponsor: Sen Landrieu, Mary L. [LA] (introduced 4/7/2008) Cosponsors (None)
Committees: Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Latest Major Action: 4/7/2008 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
15. [110th] H.R.6526 : 8/29 Investigation Team Act
Sponsor: Rep Melancon, Charlie [LA-3] (introduced 7/16/2008) Cosponsors (None)
Committees: House Transportation and Infrastructure
Latest Major Action: 7/17/2008 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management.
Sandy, your the one who made it sound like there was an active bill waiting to be tinkered with.
S2826 8/29 investigation bill.
At the end of the day, yesterday, last week, last month and the last day of the 110th congress the bill
for the 8/29 investigation DIED.
You can read the language of the entire filed bill here:
http://levees.org/2/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/8-29-Investigation-Bill-.pdf
Sandy said:
The 8/29 Investigation was written by Levees.org with input from U.S. Senator David Vitter R-LA and U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu D-LA.
You can read the language of the bill here:
http://levees.org/2/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/8-29-Investigation-Bill-.pdf
I am not a lawyer, but it was clear to me that the people who should be responsible for the levees breaking should be the people who built them, not the people who maintained them after they’re built. If a skyscraper fell to the ground, that would be like blaming the janitor and not the architect, or the engineer, or the contractor who built it.
In your Levees.org web site the only merchandise for sale is Shirts, Signs, Bumper Stickers saying
HOLD THE CORPS ACCOUNTABLE.
If your really serious about a investigation and you are not only targeting the Corps where is the merchandise HOLD THE ORLEANS LEVEE BOARD ACCOUNTABLE and others that will be part of the 8/29 investigation.
Many times, you have claimed the Corps was solely responsible for the Levee failures due to poor construction.
Sandy said:
But, again, the corruption of the Levee Board has nothing, I repeat, nothing to do with the failure of the levees. The flood protection failures were due to design and construction mistakes which at the end of the day, are, by federal mandate, the sole responsibility of YOUR Army Corps.
And we remain steadfast in asserting that the corruption of the Levee Board has nothing to do with the failure of the levees. The flood protection failures were due to design and construction mistakes which at the end of the day, are, by federal mandate, the sole responsibility of YOUR and MY Army Corps.
At the end of the day some have decided that the Corps should have all the blame of the Levee failure before a 8/29 investigation has begun.
A select few ( we know who they are) will always post and try to redirect the topic and insinuate that everyone is with the Corps or a Corps apologist when the Orleans Levee Board is mentioned in a post. ( We will prove they are out of gas on this one)
Where were you when Levees.org hammered out this bill? You're so high'n'mighty mouse here now, but where have you been the past 5 years?
You want this, you want that, 5 years after the fact.
Where have you been, Warned. It is easy for you to sit at home now and try to quarterback this, but it appears that you are only interested in distracting from investigating the Corps on how their failed engineering flooded New Orleans 8/29/05. Let's look at anything or anyone else BUT who built those failed floodwalls wrong: the Corps of Engineers.
Read the Law. Read the Bill. School yourself. But don't try to do Corps Spinfiltration here.
That dog just won't hunt.
"A select few ( we know who they are)", as you smear them, have been on the ball working for answers. Yet now 5 years later all you have is Red Herring Questions.
It wasn't the Levee Board.
It wasn't the tax-payers who paid for those failed floodwalls.
It wasn't Katrina.
It wasn't God.
It wasn't even Mother Nature
It's the Levees Stupid.
You can read the language of the bill here:
http://levees.org/2/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/8-29-Investigation-Bill-.pdf
(e) GIFTS- The Investigation Team may accept, use, and dispose of gifts or donations of services or property that enable the Investigation Team to discharge its duties under this act.
This Investigation would be an objective look by unbiased eyes at data already collected. It would use a model of bipartisan co-chairmanship to assure objectivity. Those who serve on it would be required to have expertise in the fields of engineering and flood control. And an investigation beginning three years after the hurricane would have the benefit of fresh looks at the evidence collected for similar studies in the immediate aftermath of the flooding.
Sandy, do you believe any new documents/data that were found should be added to the already collected data. Even though the data may put the Orleans Levee Board and the Corps at a shared responsibility for the Levee failures?
All you have to do is go check out the Levees.org website to find your answers:
Click here to demand the 8/29 Investigation!
* Why an Independent Investigation?
* How would this analysis be structured?
* How much time and how much money is needed?
* What would the Investigation look at?
* Who currently supports the Investigation?
Read more: http://levees.org/#ixzz0uhsmbo67
Only a fool expects different results from the same questions over and over, like an addled mule locked in an empty grain silo. Why in the world do you think Mrs. Rosenthal would say anything different or "extra" from what is clearly and in detail laid out on the her Levees.org website?
Why would anyone want to repeat anything to you?
You don't get it the first time, why humor what is obviously a congenital defect of Truth Amnesia?
Thank you,
from the back hand path,
Editilla~New Orleans Ladder
http://noladder.blogspot.com/
To carry out their primary duty of flood control, state law not only authorized the levee districts to serve as local sponsors for federal cost-share projects, but also to raise money pursuant to taxing and bonding authorities.
The revenues the Orleans Levee District earned from the businesses and its taxing and bonding authority were substantial. The Orleans Levee District financial statements for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2005, show it collected more than $24 million from property taxes and $14 million from its business-type activities in the previous 12 months. The same report said the district had $21 million in unallocated general funds and $13 million in a “special levee improvement fund. The levee improvement fund, according to the levee district’s former president, Jim Huey, could “only be used for flood protection projects and/or flood-related projects.
Although the levee district’s primary responsibility was flood protection it spent large amounts on non-flood related activities (e.g., the licensing of a casino or the operation of an airport and. marinas or the leasing of space to a karate club, beautician schools or restaurants) rather than apply the money to flood protection or emergency preparedness.
(The Orleans Levee Board also moved money from the SLIP fund to the general funds.) Where is the outrage?)
While it's acknowledged that the historic levee boards pre-Katrina were corrupt and may have wasted state money, there is no credible documented evidence in any analysis post-K that the actions of the levee districts, corrupt as they were, were relevant in the flood protection failures in 2005. A good description of this issue can be found here:
http://blog.nola.com/jarvisdeberry/2009/08/jarvis_deberry_did_corruption.html
http://www.ce.berkeley.edu/~new_orleans/
August 1990: The Orleans Levee Board initiates work on the 17th Street canal levee. The levee board elected to take the lead to achieve savings because the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board planned to deepen and widen the canal to meet their drainage needs. The Corps of Engineers issued permits to the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board in 1984 and 1992. The work required modifications to the existing levees and floodwalls. After the dredging, the bottom was 18.5 feet below sea level (below the bottom of the sheet piling), and the canal side levee on the Orleans side had been shaved so narrow, water now touched the wall. Concerns were again raised on details associated with how the levee stability analyses were being performed including concerns about factors of safety, analysis of soil shear strengths, and shape of the slope stability analyses geometries.
Now on the eve of the Fifth Anniversary of The Federal Flood & Katrina is the time to make the 8/29 Investigation law.
8/29 is my birthday. Although I no longer live in New Orleans, it's still my home! I have family
and many friends still affected by Katrina. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in soft goods and cash
were given from NJ. The Air National Guard, flew tons of durable goods in direct aid. What happened to those donations? Why oh why were people put in those chemical death traps called "Katrina Trailers". What I DO know, is ordinary people are still suffering. I applaud levees.org and
its founders for keeping the Katrina disaster ALIVE! It is still the measurement ordinary people
look to, to find out what if anything, is really going on. God Bless You All! Louisiana should "secede" from the Union, take its' wealth in oil, minerals and agriculture from sugar, rice and
cotton and support itself! Just my 2 cents. If there's anything I can do, please let me know.