Katrina and Rita, one year on: Still no progress

[thatcrazycajun]

My blood is boiling over this tidbit from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Q&A section today (ajc.com):

Q: Some weeks ago, there was a question about the New Orleans levees being repaired and upgraded in time for the hurricane season. The season has begun, but I've seen no update about whether the levee work was completed in time. Was it?

-- ELMER K. MILLER, Cumming

A: As The New York Times noted last week, the federal government has yet to significantly raise the level of levee protection in New Orleans. Local residents have been extremely critical of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and its post-Katrina efforts.

Aloma Savastano wrote in a letter published in the New Orleans Times-Picayune on Aug. 1 that two of the levees breached by the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane have only been "plugged" by the National Guard.The corps has fewer full-time employees in the area than it did before Katrina. Workers with temporary assignments in New Orleans have returned home.

Computer-generated maps released by the Corps last month indicated that tropical rain similar to Katrina's would leave much of the city under up to several feet of water, even with existing flood gates closed. Much of the work to rebuild the levees has not been done because the Corps is required by federal law to document exactly how post-Katrina federal money is spent, the Times-Picayune has reported.

The levees aren't the only problem. U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., expressed anger in late July that the Corps had failed to produce enough pumping capacity to move storm water out of New Orleans canals in the event of a significant storm this hurricane season.

They're going to let it happen again, the bastards... May God damn them to everlasting hell and nut them first.

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[filkferengi]

Slowly.