Why city's defences were down
Cuts in spending to raise levees blamed on cost of war in Iraq
John Vidal, environment editor, and Duncan Campbell
Thursday September 1, 2005
The Guardian
The Louisiana coastline may have been so badly damaged by the hurricane because manmade engineering of the delta has led to erosion of natural defences, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.
The engineering of the last 100 years that has reworked the Mississippi delta with thousands of miles of levees and flood barriers to protect communities and aid navigation, has also disturbed natural barriers which traditionally prevented storm surges and protected against hurricanes, says the society.
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"Human activity, directly or indirectly, has caused 1,500 square miles of natural coastal barriers to be eroded in the past 50 years. Human activity has clearly been a significant factor in coastal Louisiana land losses, along with subsidence, saltwater intrusion, storm events, barrier island degradation, and relative sea level changes," the society said in a paper last year.
It warned that "New Orleans and surrounding areas would now experience the full force of hurricanes, including storm surges that top levee systems and cause severe flooding as well as high winds".
The damage done this time may be also linked to White House cuts in funding for hurricane defence to pay for homeland security terrorist defences.(read rest here)
So diversion of funding to the war in Iraq was the deciding factor in turning the southern coast of Louisiana into a cesspool? Well, that must be so! Because the mess in New Orleans could have nothing whatsoever to do with
Ted the Swimmer's billions in cost overruns on his
pork barrel boondoggle. Nor, I'm sure, does it have
anything whatsoever to do with the $220 million spent on
"the bridge to nowhere" in Alaska, courtesy of
Ted Stevens and
Don Young. And
most certainly none of the
$60,652,124 in funds earmarked for the important projects
listed here could have been used to shore up the levees at New Orleans. But all those damned funds going toward ensuring that our soldiers in Iraq accomplish their mission as safely as possible, along with funds allocated to help ensure that terrorists don't turn Chicago into a parking lot are ill-considered and should be considered fair game. Okay, now I got it. Boy, am I happy I've finally straightened out my priorities. A good reality check (cough) does wonders.
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