prytaniawaterline.com Blog

The Corpse of Engineers are digging trying to find the source of seepage along the infamous 17th street canal. I guess they need to know where to stick their thumb.

I wasn’t surprised when I read the T.P. article about a private security firm, hired by the road home was finding squatters in abandoned homes owned by the road home. I would think that this problem will get worse since the crackdown of the Hooverville under the interstate.
reading the usual vulgar comments that follow such stories I have to award my ungly american trophy to this guy.

Posted by mcmurphyrp on 07/20/08 at 10:58PM
The Road Home program is socialism at its best. People who do not have insurnace and when a catastrophe hits, the Federal Gov’t bails them out with taxpayer money. Many other people pay homeowners insurance and did not get a handout. Is this not penalizing the people who sacrifice to carry insurance. Why should anyone pay for insurance if the Fed Gov’t is going to provide “Road Home” money for those that don’t have it. Especially idiots who live below MSL that do not have flood insurance. Only idiots live next to a large body of water where their house is below the surface of the water, and then blame the U.S.A.C.E. because the levees broke. Similar to those that build on side of a cliff and rebuild on the same cliff after it collapses.

The real reason that the U.S. is having problems is because we have become selfish, and self centered. Compassion and a sense of doing the right thing do not seem to be a concern of Ugly America.

It would be nice to be able to lump everyone into the ugly American category but I know too many fellow Americans who do not think that way. Those who take the selfish route just make it harder on those who don’t to convince the world that we do not all feel that way.

As far as blaming the U.S.A.C.E. for levee failure, the failed levees were not what they said they were. The construction was flawed and the corps should have recognized this and fixed the problem before they were put to the test. Yes the corps a government agency should be blamed for much of what happened here. I only wish I had the confidence to say that they have learned their lesson.

As the flooding in the Midwest continues to cause havoc and destruction, I can only think that the river is taking back what belongs to her. Living in New Orleans we are well aware of the battle of man against nature. Nature however is going to win the war in the end. Is there anything that humans can do to stem this tide, not really in the end New ORleans like Venice Italy will eventually be under water. WE do however continue to put off the inevitable, we have quite an investment both emotionally and financially to the property that the river and nature in general is trying to repossess. Have we chosen the right weapons to even put up a proper fight, our weapons being levees. Have the politics that are involved in our efforts to control the river played a part in the current situation. This battle is nothing new, I would hope that anyone who lives near the Mississippi River or who depends on levees to protect their lives and property read John Barry’s Rising Tide:The Great Mississippi Flod of 1927 and How It Changed America.

Many thanks to Loki at Humid City and Matt McBride for staying on top of the flood wall issues that still exist in New Orleans. This is a must read.

More on seepage - and what the Corps is holding back

Loki at Humid City has posted a letter from Matt McBride concerning Levee seepage.