[lbo-talk] where the disaster funds went

[Mark Bennett]

Maria Gilmore

For what it's worth, I vividly remember an episode of PBS's "Nova" in
the the last couple of years that was all about what a hit from a strong
hurricane would do to New Orleans.   Lots of interviews with 
lots of people who have been trying to plan for literally years for what
was recognized by all as a totally catastrophic event should it happen;
the city being literally in a bowl and what that means in the case of
flooding, the disasterous consequences of levees giving way, it was all
in it.    Those people I am sure knew quite well that 
there would be no way to avoid extensive flooding, since billions of
dollars had not been spent to reinforce the levees or come up with a way
to pump trapped water out of the bowl.   I'm sure they knew the 
only thing they could hope to do was to minimize loss of life, by
getting as many people out of the city as possible.  Amazingly, over 

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Yes, it was hardly a secret if a big 'cane came anywhere near N'Awlins.
I found this July 2000 article from USA today with a quick google.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news/2000/wnoflood.htm

"A slow-moving Category 3 or any Category 4 or 5 hurricane passing
within 20 or 30 miles of New Orleans would be devastating," Suhayda
says.

The storm surge - water pushed into a mound by hurricane winds - would
pour over the Pontchartrain levee and flood the city. A severe hurricane
could push floodwaters inside the New Orleans bowl as high as 20-30
feet, covering most homes and the first three or four stories of
buildings in the city, he says. "This brings a great risk of
casualties."

In this type of scenario the metro area could be submerged for more than
10 weeks, says Walter S. Maestri, Director of Emergency Management for
Jefferson Parish, which encompasses more than half of the city. In those
10 weeks, residents would need drinking water, food and a dry place to
live.

Besides the major problems flooding would bring, there is also concern
about a potentially explosive and deadly problem. Suhayda says flooding
of the whole city could easily mix industrial and household chemicals
into a toxic and volatile mix. Coupled with an estimated 100,000 tons of
sediment, a cleanup could take several months. In the worst case
scenario, the mix of toxic chemicals could make some areas of the city
uninhabitable. "It could take several years for the city to recover
fully, economically, from a strong hurricane," says Suhayda."


I suppose the only siginficant difference between this prognostication
and what actually happened is that the storm surge didn't send water
spilling over the levee; rather the levee broke and let the lake flood
in - probably a worse long-term issue, but not as immediately deadly.