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Jewish World Review Sept. 16, 2005 / 12 Elul, 5765 What caused the flood? By Rich Lowry
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Hurricane Katrina makes for a straightforward narrative for
liberals: Big government could have prevented the catastrophe, but
President Bush so distrusts government, he didn't spend enough on
levees and other projects to save New Orleans. Leaving aside that
the free-spending Bush is hardly a miser, this narrative has no
connection to the grimy facts on the ground. Indeed, if this is "a
big government moment," one wonders why government continues to look
so bad.
The "more funding for levees" argument perpetuates a common
misperception. The long-standing earthen levees surrounding the city
did not fail. It was the floodwalls around the drainage canals that
protrude into New Orleans that were overwhelmed. One breach seems to
have been caused by a barge breaking loose from its moorings and
battering down one of the walls. Will Nancy Pelosi now accuse Bush
of underfunding barge moorings?
It is still a matter of debate what caused the other breaches.
One expert at the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center told
The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune that he suspects a "catastrophic
structural failure." Another expert suggested that "the flaw may not
be in the design but in the construction or materials."
So the flooding didn't result from old levees desperately
needing more funding. In fact, the section of 17th Street canal
where a major breach occurred had just been upgraded, and The New
York Times writes "received more attention and shoring up than many
other spots in the region." Even if Bush had larded more money on
New Orleans — according to a broad-brush comparison in The
Washington Post, he spent more in his first five years in office
than Bill Clinton did in his last five — it wouldn't have stop such
a breach.
In a key respect, too much government funding was the problem. A
hurricane researcher at Louisiana State University has long warned
that the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet — built in 1965 as a
shortcut from the Gulf of Mexico to the Port of New Orleans — would
serve as a "hurricane highway," magnifying storm surges and
delivering them into the city. It appears that this is what
happened.
The Washington Post reports that only 3 percent of the port's
cargo comes through the canal, at a price to taxpayers of an
estimated $12,000 per vessel. Still, the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers spent $13 million dredging the canal last year. Even
though there were warnings about the dangers of MRGO, even though it
was commercially marginal, the Corps wanted to spend up to $38
million on keeping it going. A former employee with the Corps' New
Orleans district told the Post: "The general feeling was: 'There's
no way we're closing that.' They wanted all the business they could
get."
Here is the recipe for government, not as liberals imagine it,
but as it actually exists: Take the Corps, for whom every project,
no matter how unnecessary, is a "pressing need"; combine it with
Congress, where Louisiana representatives eagerly diverted Corps
money to their pet projects; and throw on top the corrupt
officialdom of New Orleans. Then shake well — and get out of the
way.
The Orleans Levee Board, the state agency charged with
protecting the levees, is so notorious that it makes Bush's FEMA
look like a paragon of professionalism. Former president of the
board Billy Nungesser, who was ousted after trying to reform it,
says: "Every time I turned over a rock, there was something rotten.
I used to tell people, 'If your children ever die in a hurricane,
come shoot us, because we're responsible.' We threw away all sorts
of money."
The board operates an airport, two marinas, and has a private
police force that Nungesser says "wears more gold braid than Gen.
MacArthur when he went to the Philippines." The board just spent
$2.4 million on a Mardi Gras Fountain near Lake Pontchartrain. NBC
News reports that the board spent $15 million on building overpasses
to a riverboat casino, and paid $45,000 to a private investigator to
find dirt on a board critic — followed by another $45,000 to settle
the resulting lawsuit. Feeling dry yet?
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© 2005 King Features Syndicate |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
