September 4, 2008 at 05:10:48

Katrina Redux

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By Stephen Lendman (about the author) Page 4 of 4 page(s)

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-- the city's population was reduced by 214,000 and is now 239,000, according to the latest US Census Bureau estimate; and

-- billions of FEMA damage and repair funding has yet to be made available to city and state residents; it likely never will be.

Meanwhile, three years post-Katrina, $15 billion in New Orleans hurricane protection construction has barely started even though the US Army Corps of Engineers says 20% of it is completed. All of it is supposed to be by 2011, and the Corps claims New Orleans "now has the best flood protection in its history."

Point of fact - it's woefully inadequate. The city remains vulnerable, especially in its eastern poorer areas. Too little is being done to prevent another Katrina disaster that's inevitable from a powerful future storm. If a Category 5, it'll be disastrous, and a shocking April 24 WWL-TV report provides evidence.

It's headlined: "4 Investigates: Floodwalls stuffed with newspaper?" "It blows my mind," according to St. Bernard parish president Craig Taffaro showing videotape evidence on-air. An indictment of a US Army Corps of Engineers hired contractor. A resident said two years ago he witnessed the expansion joint opening between floodwalls being stuffed with newspapers. "The whole length" of it. And when he confronted the contractor he was told "when Congress sends down the money, it would be repaired the proper way."

It wasn't as Gustav approached, and WWL asked a local American Society of Civil Engineers member to investigate. A man ASCE named Louisiana's outstanding civil engineer in 2003 - Subhash Kulkarni. He said: "I cannot even comprehend that somebody would stuff some newspaper in there." Floodwall expansion joints have three lines of defense:

-- an elastic strip to help keep out water;

-- waterstops in the middle that's most important; the St. Bernard floodwall has them; and

-- rubber joints in between to keep out foreign objects; St. Bernard floodwalls lack them; newspaper was used instead; Kulkarni called it "very serious; it doesn't take a lot of stress to cause the failure of these floodwalls; we don't know after two or three years how the main joint will perform; this is the first line of defense."

For its part, the Corps of Engineers defended the work and denied any of it was shoddy, but a Corps emailer disagreed. He told WWL that "sponge rubber" is required next to waterstops - the same areas where newspaper was used instead. Ecron Corporation did the work. Contractually it was obliged to do it right. The company president didn't respond to WWL's "repeated requests for a comment," and the station discovered that his company "is not even licensed by the state's board for contractors." Apparently not a problem with the Corps of Engineers. Or with the Bush administration and its corporate allies who crave another chance to make New Orleans even whiter and free up more choice real estate for high-profit development.

A total city makeover with billions in federal and local funding to assist. Welcome to America's future. Upscale tourist destinations. Luxury accommodations for the privileged. Gated communities for the wealthy. Every amenity imaginable. For most others and the nation's poor - exploitation by neglect and abandonment. Growing numbers on society's fringes ignored and forgotten. A two-party duopoly assuring it. Militarizing the country for enforcement. Planning an unfriendly future by making America into a police state. Replicating the model everywhere. New Orleans and Iraq are incubators. Not the kind of country for young people to inherit. High time that enough of us realize it's our job to prevent it.

Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Center for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Mondays from 11AM - 1PM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests. All programs are archived for easy listening.

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