Nearly Completed Levee System Mistrusted
As we near the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina the massive levee, canal, and pumping system built to protect the city is still not completed. Since the project is behind schedule, over budget, and a few years ago a contractor was caught using newspaper as filler, the residents are not so trustworthy. The New York Times has a run down:
The scale of the nearly $15 billion project, which is not due to be completed until the beginning of next year’s hurricane season, brings to mind an earlier age when the nation built huge works like the Brooklyn Bridge, the Hoover Dam and the Interstate highway system.
The city’s reinforced defenses are already stronger than they were before Katrina. But even after 2011, experts argue, they will still provide less protection than New Orleans needs to avoid serious flooding in massive storms.
For a region devastated by a storm and by a loss of faith in the government’s ability to safeguard it, the new system is a test of more than the prowess of the Army Corps of Engineers. Some residents say they may never fully get over the failure of the Katrina response. “Do I trust them?” asked Beverly Crais, a Jefferson Parish resident. “No. How can I trust somebody who makes that big of an error?”
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