NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Hurricane Katrina's initial storm surge hit New Orleans' levees with more than they were designed to handle, an Army Corps of Engineers official says The storm dug a 26-foot-deep gouge on the other side of the concrete wall of the 17th Street Canal, resulting in the failure of several wall panels and the flooding of much of the city, said Al Naomi, project manager for the east bank Lake Pontchartrain hurricane levee system. The high water the strong Category 4 storm pushed into Ponchartrain overwhelmed the levee's design when the lake backed up into the canal, he told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. "They were designed to withstand a surge for a Category 3 or less storm," Naomi said, adding engineers think the same thing happened along the other canals that gave way. Naomi said there was no way officials could have done anything about the collapses during the storm, even if they had become immediately aware of them.

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The leftist Bush-haters would have us believe that the flood damage was due to funding cuts by the Bush Administration.

In reality, the levees have been neglected for decades. A set of upgrades was planned in 1965. Forty years later, and those upgrades are incomplete.

Ask yourselves this:

How many Democrat administrations have we had in the 40 years?
Which party controlled Congress for most of that 40 years?
Which party controlled LA for most of that 40 years?

Finally, the 1965 upgrades, even if completed 100%, could not handle a category 4 storm and 28 foot surge. They were not designed to handle a storm of that magnitude!

Hurricane Katrina's initial storm surge hit New Orleans' levees with more than they were designed to handle, an Army Corps of Engineers official says

No shit, sherlock

This is no one's fault but reality.

Reality is this was a worse case senario storm, reality was money was not available to build those levee's to withstand a storm that although was predicted, most assumed would never happen.

Reality is, it is human nature to try to find someone to blame other than one's self.

I remember seeing those levees as a kid and thinking that they are FOOKIN HUGE! Oh well, after the city burns to the ground, is D8'ed, and backfilled w/ 30' of earth they should build bigger leeves just like they did following hurricane Betsy in '65!

The problem is LWLs think it's Bush's fault.

Why not blame Johnson? He was president when the upgrade was planned.