Justice delayed has turned out not to be justice denied. On November 18, 2009, the Federal District Court in New Orleans ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for the massive flooding of the 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish from poor maintenance on the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO), a navigation channel.

Please watch the following short videos about the breaking news:

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Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Here are the background articles Rachel Maddow refers to in the above show segment:

Time Magazine Article by Michael Grunwald: Hurricane Katrina Two Years Later, Aug. 2, 2007

Michael Grunwald on the hubris of the Army Corps, March 18, 2008; Grist

Corps’ operation of MR-GO doomed homes in St. Bernard, Lower 9th Ward, judge rules; NOLA.com

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Here are some more web links on the issue:

Katrina Canal Breaches Consolidated Litigation

U.S. District Court Eastern District of Louisiana Findings

This is the first article in a series devoted to exploring the history, science, and flood protection in New Orleans. Future articles will explore the geology and environment of wetlands and river deltas, how wetlands protect against hurricanes, the effects of erosion and subsidence, the damage done by humans to destroy the natural protections New Orleans used to have, and what will need to be redesigned and rebuilt to really protect the city from the inevitable next big hurricane.

References:
Special Thanks to The Rachel Maddow Show Video embedding feature and TRMS Link Blog!

Technorati Tags: Army Corps of Engineers, Causes of Katrina Disaster in New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina, infrastructure failure, Michael Grunwald, Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO), MRGO, MSNBC News, Rachel Maddow, St. Bernard Parish

Posted on December 7th, 2009 by joubess
Filed under: Accountability and Justice, Photos, Science, Videos | 1 Comment »

I just ran across an interesting article from 2008 on the Think New Orleans blog entitled Truth Stranger Than Fiction: Army Corps of Engineers Building Levees Out of Newspaper

It’s a fascinating and damning story of “maintenance and repair” of the New Orleans levee system after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. I encourage you to read the article. It’s not long and it’s very compelling.

This picture is priceless:

Why is it we wonder how our infrastructure fails? With design and building like this, failure is imminent.

The Army Corps of Engineers had a large amount of responsibility in the flooding of New Orleans and the loss of 1400 lives. The oil and gas industry and residential and commercial construction industries also contributed significantly to damage and loss of barrier islands and wetlands.

But the biggest failure of all is humankind’s lack of understanding of the complex, multifaceted ecosystem of south Louisiana. Many factors converged over time to cause this catastrophic event.

The question is will the city of New Orleans, state of Louisiana, and Federal Government address the root causes of this catastrophe. I’m not holding my breath, but I am hopeful that we the people of Louisiana have had enough and will demand that the root problems will be properly repaired, or even redesigned and rebuilt from scratch if needed.

Technorati Tags: Army Corps of Engineers, Hurricane Katrina Pictures, newspaper as building material

Posted on November 21st, 2009 by joubess
Filed under: Lessons & Analysis, Photos | No Comments »