Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Human Rights Law Blogs -> Never In Our Names

Human Rights Law

: Never In Our Names

Katrina and Gustav An Early Assessment

By YatPundit

Well, we're working our way through clean-up and repair in the wake of a storm that reached Category 2 on the Saffer-Simpson scale here in New Orleans.  

Even though I firmly believe that Michael Moore is an idiot for thinking a hurricane making landfall in any populated area is a good thing for anyone, Hurricane Gustav was important for New Orleans in a number of ways.  Some of the key points:
The Industrial Canal did not breach.  This is the flooding that destroyed the Ninth Ward in 2005. This time around, storm surge came up the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO), forcing water in the canal to go over the seawall on the upper side.  While there was minor street flooding in the vicinity of the canal, the seawall itself held.

Another issue that reared its head again, and will (hopefully) be addressed during the Gustav post-mortems, is that of ship/barge traffic in the IHNC during a tropical event.  There were two US Navy ships at the Southern Scrap dock that were shifting at anchor, causing some concern that they would collide with the seawall.  Fortunately this did not happen.

The floodwalls were tested.  The outfall canals that drain the city into Lake Pontchartrain were the other main source of misery for NOLA during Katrina.  Since then, gates have been constructed at the end of the 17th Street, Marconi Avenue, and London Avenue Canals.  The lake surge was high enough by Monday afternoon that the London Avenue canal's gates were closed, blocking lake water from entering into that canal.  The canal floodwalls all held.  Of course, they were certainly not stressed like they were three years ago, but still, things were much improved.

In both of these cases, it's important to note that nobody in metro New Orleans trusts the US Army Corps of Engineers.  This part of our military establishment brought serious dishonor upon itself for allowing forty years of lies and cover-your-ass to flood the city.  Now, when the ACOE wants to do something, their opinion is studied, analyzed, questioned, and debated.  Prior to Katrina, they were trusted; it will be another forty years before the Corps can even begin to contemplate erasing their dishonor of 2005.

Since there was no repeat of the catastrophes of 2005, and because Gustav attacked Southeastern Louisiana at a totally different angle than did Katrina, new challenges have presented themselves.

Plaquemines Parish and "non-Federal" Levees.  Plaquemines Parish owns the Mississippi River below New Orleans.  It's always been an area of small rural enclaves, fishing villages, and oil/gas/mineral industry.  Much of the parish's land is outside the federally-maintained (ACOE) flood protection system  for New Orleans.  Just how much of a threat to the regional economy this is came to light in a huge way on Monday, when several levees not maintained by the ACOE were either overtopped or breached.  Parish officials and experts from the city have said "I told you so!" numerous times since Monday.  We can only hope that President Obama will heed those calls.

Power Vulnerability.  At this writing, 13 of 14 major transmission lines leading into the Isle d'Orleans are down.  Entergy Louisiana is working to fix these lines, some say not fast enough.  Governor Piyush "Bobby" Jindal is none too happy with the power company, since the interests he represents, oil/gas, hospitals, and the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) are more affected by this development than the voters who actually put him into office.  Entergy LA says it may be 9 days to two weeks before the grid is restored.  From an economic development as well as a Republican profit perspective, this is totally unacceptable.  
In addition to all this, Hurricane Gustav has made one thing abundantly clear:  John McCain should not be President, because he suffers from the worst of bad luck and bad karma.  I want to go to Vegas with this guy, and set him in front of a roulette wheel.  When he picks red, I'm betting double-zero.

(NOTE apologies for the lack of references and sources for this post.  I'm working off my phone as an internet connection.  My home in Metairie has power once again, but the cable company has not restored broadband service.)

Full post as published by Never In Our Names on September 03, 2008 (boomark / email).