This one is going to be bad!!! I think the people who are going to stay are crazy. Whats your life worth get the heck out of dodge!

__________________
2006 CL500
2009 C300 4matic
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

CNN
Report: New Orleans levee planners ignored danger signs
POSTED: 12:15 p.m. EDT, March 22, 2007

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- Decades of mistakes -- some as basic as not knowing the elevation of New Orleans -- led the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to believe its levees and floodwalls would protect the city from a storm as strong as Hurricane Katrina, a report released Wednesday concludes.

The corps used obsolete research to design flood-control structures that were built too low and improperly maintained, a group of engineers and storm researchers called Team Louisiana said in its 475-page report. The report was commissioned by the state Department of Transportation and Development.

The system was intended to be strong enough to handle a Category 3 hurricane like Katrina, which devastated New Orleans when levees broke.

Two major studies last year looked at the engineering problems that caused the 2005 breaches, but the new study also closely examines whether the problems could have been foreseen when the flood-control system was created.

The report said the errors date to the original plans in 1965, which relied on land height measurements from 1929. Because the city had sunk over the years, the plans called for levees that were 1 to 2 feet too low.

"This mistake was locked in" for continuing construction by a policy adopted in 1985, even though scientists knew how fast New Orleans was sinking, the report said. By the time Katrina hit, the levees were as much as 5 feet too low.

Article continues < http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/22/new.orleans.levees.ap/index.html >

**************************************
DOTD releases Team Louisiana Report
Contact: MARK LAMBERT, (225) 379-1221
March 21, 2007

BATON ROUGE – The Department of Transportation and Development on Wednesday released a report commissioned by a panel of Louisiana scientists on the failure of the federal levee systems in the New Orleans area during Hurricane Katrina.

The report can be accessed online at:

http://www.dotd.louisiana.gov/administration/teamlouisiana/.

Two months after Katrina struck, DOTD Secretary Johnny B. Bradberry commissioned “Team Louisiana” to collect and document data and evidence related to the failure of levee systems. Six of the nine team members are researchers at Louisiana State University. The team leader is Ivor van Heerden, Ph.D., director of the LSU Center for the Study of Public Health Impacts of Hurricanes. Van Heerden also is deputy director of the LSU Hurricane Center and is an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering.

Press release continues < http://www.dotd.state.la.us/press/pressrelease.asp?nRelease=764 >

**************************************
Team Louisiana Documents
< http://www.dotd.louisiana.gov/administration/teamlouisiana/ >

As Hurricane Katrina pounded the New Orleans region on Aug. 29, 2005, the Federal levee system failed, causing massive flooding and the deaths of hundreds of citizens and destruction of billions of dollars of property.

Federal agencies and national organizations mounted investigations into the causes behind the failures. On behalf of the state of Louisiana, DOTD Secretary Johnny B. Bradberry commissioned a team of Louisiana scientists to gather and document all available data relevant to the failures. This team became known as "Team Louisiana."

More < http://www.dotd.louisiana.gov/administration/teamlouisiana/ >

The saga of mismanagement, misjudgment, corruption, and plain stupidity continues. . . .

Reason 6,727 for me to get out of this city (and state).

__________________
* *
-- Paul W. (The Benzadmiral)
('03 Buick Park Avenue, charcoal/cream)
Formerly:
'97 C230, smoke silver/parchment; '86 420SEL, anthracite/light grey; '84 280CE (W123), dark blue/palomino

Why on Earth would ANYBODY move back to New Orleans?

Once, is lesson learned.

Twice, you're just STUPID.

Ever heard of the San Andreas Fault? San Francisco Earthquake? An equal or larger quake is predicted for that fault in the next 50 years. Could be tomorrow.

How about fires in SoCal's foothills?

3,000 people died in NY on 9/11. Think it couldn't (or wont) happen again?

Living in Memphis or St Louis should be safe --except the largest earthquake in US history occurred in that area in the early 1800's. Shock was felt in NOLA & Savanna, GA. And Savanna has also had it's own devastating quake.

There are all kinds of risks.

What I object to is the public subsidizing the risk. You suckers (taxpayers) subsidize flood insurance along every coastal community and ever river valley in the USA. I believe you subsidize earthquake insurance, too. Why? Private property should be privately insured. Can't afford the risk? Too damned bad. Sell-out to somebody who can.

B

Nah!

Fires are not the biggest problem...unexpected landslides are. And the view is sooooooooo pretty.

BTW, you are repeating yourself!

__________________
Current Benzes

1989 300TE "Alice"
1990 300CE "Sam Spade"
1991 300CE "Beowulf" RIP (06.1991 - 10.10.2007)
1998 E320 "Orson"
2002 C320 Wagon "Molly Fox"

Res non semper sunt quae esse videntur

My Gallery

Not in this weather!

Yeah, had a power outage (anybody for roasted squirrel?) and modem got confused so being impatient after entering version one, opened a new window and tried again. That made my modem sit down and quit working. So had to reset the modem and reboot the computer.

Wonder what joys the upcoming hurricane is predicting? Remember last year when the prediction was slightly less than 05? It ended-up being one of the slowest on record. Forecasting with dice and owl guts.

B

The piece of land that New Orleans is situated on, was NEVER suitable to build a city on. Never mind the inadequate levees (if anyone can) the soil itself is almost at, or at saturation level. They originally built the city not knowing ALL the disadvantages. WHY? Why would taxpayers be willing to subsidize a LOSING venture to rebuild? Another loosing venture... How many times will it take? It's not a suitable piece of real estate! PERIOD.

Agreed .

It's not the risk of living in a place (like botnt is pointing out.) It is why would someone move back to what once was NO.

It's not based on the risk of living in a certain place.

It is why move back to what is now left of what NO once was. It isn't the same place & if it got hit again next season I wouldn't want to have just opened a seafood restaurant or bought a house and moved all my stuff into it...

If you're looking for places with less risk, they do exist.

http://www.adkbyowner.com/




...

__________________
'87 924S
'81 280SEL

Sold ->

81 300SD -
93 300E w/ 3.2
85 300D-
79 300SD
82 300CD
83 300CD - CA
87 190E 5 spd
87 Porsche 924S

"..I'll take a simple "C" to "G" and feel brand new about it..."

My best friend was formerly the Mississippi operations director for a major non-profit doing Katrina relief in MS. She had 40 minutes alone with George W. Bush last year, if that gives any indication as to her status. (in addition to being the contact for Laura Bush's charities, the "artist" Usher's charity work, etc.)

In any case, she organized much of the gutting and rehab volunteer work being done on the coast, and eventually started guiding new construction.

She was recently fired after complaining about the nature of the work being done in the area. She felt that the "photo opportunity" was being given too much importance at the expense of services provided with quality and integrity.

For instance: new construction COULD be done to comply with FEMA floodplain standards, but is not, due to costs. As a result, homeowners will not qualify for insurance, and worse will be at great risk for future hurricane obliteration.

The volunteer labor is declining at a pace only matched by the inflow of funds as the nation tires of hearing about Katrina victims.

In other news: when I was on Cape Cod last year, the local (only) strip club was thrilled to earn the business (delivered by charter bus daily) of the Katrina "Temporarily Displaced Persons" (TDP's: sing with Tom Petty: You don't, have, to live like a TDP) who used their FEMA debit cards to order lap dance after lap dance before being delivered, drunk, back to Otis AFB.

It's a CF all the way around folks.

__________________
Cannondale ST600 XL
Redline Monocog 29er
2011 Mini Cooper Clubman
2005 Honda Element EX

www.djugurba.com
www.waldenwellness.com

On top of losers spending their federal donations on lap dances, the local paper was full last year of stories about good solid working folks who'd relocated. In many cases, to places where they had better jobs and less crime than they did in New Orleans. And all they could do was whine that "It's cold" (in Utah? Wait until summer, sweetie, it'll get plenty hot!) or "It just isn't home." (Give it a chance, lady! Can't you tell when you're better off? If you miss The Swamp that much, hop a plane and visit it.)

I regret every day that I didn't push harder to find a job somewhere else during the initial outpouring of help to Katrina refugees. I'm searching now, but September and October of 2005 was a real missed opportunity. Believe me, if the feds had put me on a plane to Utah or someplace where I was earning more money and with a better climate, I'd have grabbed the chance with both hands, instead of wringing them and chanting, "It just isn't home!"

__________________
* *
-- Paul W. (The Benzadmiral)
('03 Buick Park Avenue, charcoal/cream)
Formerly:
'97 C230, smoke silver/parchment; '86 420SEL, anthracite/light grey; '84 280CE (W123), dark blue/palomino

After having lived forty-something places in forty-something years I can tell you first hand that any place is just what you make of it.

The State of Louisiana asked for, and received variance from those guidelines while still remaining eligible for the money.

In other news, Gov Blanco was pushed-out of her re-election bid by party members who saw a dead-loss as her opponents were gearing-up a massive re-hash of her televised crack-up & etc. Coincidentally, John Breaux looks like the boy of destiny. Since retiring from the US Senate several years ago, Breaux has been on the Beltway Gravy-Train and living in Maryland.

Recall that the legislature, run by the same party as the governor, passed a law allowing refugees not living in their home precinct to vote in the previous election, coincidentally re-electing Ray Nagin as mayor. This same law will allow folks who will have lived in Houston, Atlanta, New York and many other cities for over 2 years to vote for Breaux, who hasn't lived in Louisiana in 5 years.

It's a funny world.

B