Denver vs. New Orleans

Discussion in 'Politics' started by EqtTrdr, Jan 3, 2007.

  1. "Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., on Wednesday sought federal disaster relief for people and livestock in the southeastern part of the state. "

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16467237/

    Now that some asshole in Colorado showed how they don't need help, should we refuse help to people in need. Of course not... we as a nation should help out whenever help is needed.
     
    #21     Jan 4, 2007
  2. Shifting the blame? No corruption at the local level? And I don't play games.

    Does it not make more sense to prevent problems than deal with a bigger problem later? Various governments had decades to build the levees from category 3 to 5. No flooding would have occured with level 5 levees.

    Why were the feds not responsible for seeing how and where that fed money was spent? What was the New Orleans Levee Board doing spending levee money on fountains? That's what I want to know.

    Does the below sound reasonable?

    savebigeasy.org
    New Orleans Levee System Petition
    Therefore, our mission involves three goals:

    1) To secure the passage of a bill in Congress that will authorize and finance the construction of a comprehensive, Category 5 hurricane and flood protection system for New Orleans....

    2) Furthermore, We envision a bill that provides $20 billion dollars to a New Orleans Levee Commission, headed by a Levee Czar, which will have the power to rise above petty political squabbles in order to upgrade the levees in the most competent, efficient manner possible.

    3) Finally, we seek the creation of an independent oversight board that will report to the federal government and will ensure that funds are spent appropriately.
     
    #22     Jan 4, 2007
  3. Orleans Parish Levee Board owns an airport, a marina with a casino and a lot of other income producing real estate. Portions of the New Orleans lakefront area have been converted into recreational areas with fountains, picnic areas etc. A lot of these areas are also rented out for weddings, reunions and other activities that generate income for the board.

    Go to their website and check it out. Click on the link on departments and then on business entities, where you will see the various businesses that are owned by them. These entities not only build fountains but build a lot of other stuff required to carry out their business obligations.
    http://www.orleanslevee.com/

    By the way, Orleans Parish Levee Board and a bunch of other local levee boards have been disbanded and are now part of a regional levee board. By the way, the feds never gave the monies to build a Cat 5 system. Even today, all the billions of dollars going to rebuild a devastated system is still being done for a Cat 3 hurricane. The US Corps of Engineers is still studying the feasibility of a Cat 5 protection system.

    You are woefully uneducated and ill-informed about the mechanics of the hurricane protection system design, construction and maintenance for the South East Louisiana area. Please do not base your judgement on what you read sensational journalistic articles. Do yourself a favor and go to the USACE's website and do your research there.
     
    #23     Jan 4, 2007
  4. The questions I am asking of the government still remain:

    Does it not make more sense to prevent problems than deal with
    bigger problems later? (responsibility of fed and local) Do you want FEMA to have more responsibility?

    I asked why the various governments, fed and local, over the last 100+ years have not built cat 5 levees in N O where it's most needed, but spent billions elsewhere. Were they thinking no hurricane of that magnitude could happen? Katrina was only a 3 or 4.
    They're still doing feasibility studies for cat 5 levees after all these years, but they plan on rebuilding N O anyway.

    I'm more interested in the various governments preventing problems instead of the clowns at FEMA and their so called disaster response. Everyone bashes FEMA and protects those responsible for the levees. If all those responsible for the levees had done their job, N O would not have flooded saving about 1000 lives.

    From Wikipedia:
    The Orleans Levee Board is the body in charge of supervising the levee and floodwall system in Orleans Parish, Louisiana which is intended to protect New Orleans from flooding.

    (Apparently the OLB has failed.)

    Some critics of the board have charged its members with being more concerned with such lucrative subsidiary activities than with their primary assigned task. As of December 2005, legal investigations of possible criminal negligence are ongoing.
     
    #24     Jan 4, 2007
  5. Take New Orleans over Denver - - give the points. Wait, WTF, this is about a snowstorm with 3 1/2 feet of snow? In Denver in winter? :p

    Thanks for bringing this catastrophe to the world's attention. We'd have never known. :D
     
    #25     Jan 4, 2007
  6.  
    #26     Jan 4, 2007
  7. You display your ignorance when you say that the hurricane drowned the area. The hurricane had passed when the floodwalls gave away. The city was built hundreds of years ago and people have called it their home for many generations.

    Natural disaster can strike anywhere... tornados in the midwest, earthquakes in California and snowstorms in Colorado. You have to learn to live with nature and try to take precautions. That is why we built the floodwalls here in New Orleans area.
     
    #27     Jan 4, 2007
  8. Just so that you know, the annual budget of the Orleans Parish Levee Board was $40 million a year. You can't build rat's ass with that kind of money. The kind of walls that failed was weak I-walls that the Corps constructed because of lack of funding. The stronger T-walls being designed now cost about $15,000 to $20,000 per linear foot to build. That is about $100 million for just one mile of floodwall. There was no way Orleans Levee Board could provide that protection with that budget.

    Said that, Orleans and the other levee boards were rats nests infested by political cronyism. The assholes in charge have now been kicked out and hopefully the better "super" levee districts been formed. However, the responsibility of building the floodwalls and levees still lie with the US Army Corps of Engineers.
     
    #28     Jan 4, 2007
  9. As usual, the good Captain is spot-on. Nice post.
     
    #29     Jan 4, 2007
  10. Turok

    Turok

    The Captain:
    >Actually N.O. was flooded by a real big fuckin' hurricane

    Maji:
    >You display your ignorance when you say that the
    >hurricane drowned the area. The hurricane had
    >passed when the floodwalls gave away.

    Hell Maj, I'll bet we can get through all of 2007 and never see a more moronic response than yours - and here on ET that's really saying something.

    If Katrina changed direction in the Gulf, we wouldn't be having this conversation and you say it wasn't the hurricane. What crap.

    JB
     
    #30     Jan 5, 2007