"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." -- President Bush on Good Morning America, September 1, 2005''The Corps knew, everybody knew, that the levees had limited capability,'' -- Joseph Suhayda, retired director of the Louisiana State University's Water Resources and Research Institute, quoted in the Miami Herald.
The Southeast Louisiana Hurricane Evacuation and Sheltering Plan -- updated in 2000 -- said that a hurricane of Katrina's strength could create a 20 foot storm surge and the levees could break. (WashPost/GMA/Miami Herald)
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It wasn't the levees--it was the canal walls, and it would have taken 20 years to complete the work if they started today beefing them up for more than a Catagory 3 storm event--so says the Head of the Corps of Engineers in New Orleans.
This problem has been long recognized over many Presidential administrations. It has been likened to California's earthquake vulnerability--its not a matter of if, just when it will happen.
Now tell me, have we done everything possible to protect California from the 'big one', or do we simply take the easy route, and say to ourselves, those folks in California choose to live with a known risk, and when the big one hits, we'll just lay blame on the poor sapp who happens to be in office.
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