"The more you look at this, the worse it gets,”

More evidence of Corpse of Engineers negligence. It turns out that a project to dredge the 17th St. canal weakened the levee so much on one side that warter was in direct contact with the pilings of the flood wall. The Corpse knew about the project, and signed off on it. Ad this to faulty design, poor construction, failure to inspect properly, and failure to maintain, and it begins to look like the Corpse was really asleep at the switch. Or criminally negligent. I prefer the latter. New Orleans should colledt big-time from the feds for this collossal set of failures. And all of it happened well before the hurricane which did the final damage. But the poor levees are undoubtedly the effrective cause of New Orleans' destruction.

NOLA.com: Times-Picayune Updates: "

“The more you look at this, the worse it gets,” said J. David Roberts, the University of Missouri-Rolla professor who is an expert on levee failures, and part of the National Science Foundation forensic team. “Dredging is always a prime suspect in these failures. And when you look at this project, the alarm bells go off.”

The dredging was done as part of a joint-venture between the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board, the Orleans Levee District, and the East Jefferson Levee District. Officials at the time hailed it as a sterling example of cooperation for the public good.

Records show the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued permits to the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board to do the dredging in 1984 and 1992. The corps was not a partner in the project. "