“This is my 11th visit since the storm hit. You see progress. ” -President Bush
However, according to the New Orleans Times Picayune
“crucial improvements aimed at upgrading the system to the level long ago authorized by Congress are barely past the planning stages.”
In the same article, Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, had the following to say
” […] the slow pace of construction of incomplete levees and levee walls on the West Bank in Jefferson Parish leaves open a major storm-surge window, van Heerden said.”
“If you had a Katrina that came up to the west of Morgan City, we could potentially see flooding of the entire West Bank, he said.
‘And if we had another Katrina that traveled just west of the (Louis Armstrong International) airport and slowed, it would have the potential of flooding completely both the east and west banks.'”
Years of neglect caught up with everyone last August. Certainly what happened can’t be blamed on any one individual or body. However, the question one must ask the president after hearing his comments is everyone doing enough now? An almost completed levee system that barely meets the grossly insufficient pre-Katrina standards definitely tell a story.
“A year ago, I committed our federal government to help you,” the president says. There are still many reasons to doubt the validity of the previous statement. Also makes me wonder about the point of his next statement:
“We can work together and will, but when disaster strikes, the first people that you rely upon are your friends.”
Or as a T-shirt on bourbon st. reads “BYOR: Build You Own Raft”
Isn't it pretty to think so? 