message from Levees.org: Corps Admits Fault in New Orleans Flooding

From: Sandy@levees.org
Subject: Corps Admits Fault in New Orleans Flooding
Date: June 3, 2006 7:04:13 PM EDT
To: me


Dear Members,

This week, the US Army Corps of Engineers admitted that the levees it controls in New Orleans were an incomplete and inconsistent patchwork of protection containing flaws in design and construction.

The list of errors is long. The Corps acknowledged they used a Standard Project Hurricane inadequate for today's storms, used a safety margin too low for one million people and their property, selected projects based on revenue generated not safety, ignored critical subsidence data, and did not plan for overtopping of levees. On top of all this, the engineering of what they built was fatally flawed.

I hope that, with the admissions of the Corps and with the expert opinion revealed in the U.C. Berkeley report that the Nation and Congress will come to a better understanding of what happened August 29, 2005. Hopefully, finally, we can all agree on what caused the Flooding and truly embark on the process of rebuilding New Orleans and southern Louisiana and making its citizens whole.

It is time for the federal government to ackowledge the Corps' culpability and it is high time for Congress to do what is right for the people of Louisiana.

What you can do this week:

If you haven't already, please urge everyone you know who lives outside New Orleans to go to: http://www.levees.org/advocacy/congress1.php and send letters to their Members of Congress.

Display your sign! If yours has mysteriously disappeared, put up another one! We have a sizable inventory and they're paid for by donations. Get a sign at one of our 8 city wide locations: http://www.levees.org/promo/sign.php

Thank you!

Sandy Rosenthal
Founder, Levees.Org
www.levees.org