'People died . . . because safety was exchanged for efficiency and reduced cost.'

New Study of Levees Faults Design and Construction - New York Times:

"Most of the major breaches in the New Orleans levee system during Hurricane Katrina were caused by flaws in design, construction and maintenance — and parts of the system could still be dangerous even after the current round of repairs by the Army Corps of Engineers, according to a long-awaited independent report to be published Monday.

'People didn't die because the storm was bigger than the system could handle, and people didn't die because the levees were overtopped,' said Raymond B. Seed, a professor of engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and the chief author of the report, in a weekend briefing for reporters here.

'People died because mistakes were made,' he said, 'and because safety was exchanged for efficiency and reduced cost.'"