I received a forwarded e-mail from someone who alledgedly lives in NO.  He claims that people were allowed to tie up their barges and boats along the sea wall/levee along Lake Pontchartrain, and that is why the levees/sea walls broke.  

Is there any truth in this?

The e-mail has a lot of stuff that I found to be racist, so I will not post it here.  It made me uncomfortable.  

Edited to add this part, I should have put this in the original post.  I added to my most recent post too:

Well, I would like to answer this rhetorical question. American Indians originally founded New Orleans. When D'Iberville sailed up the Mississippi he established his operations at Baton Rouge. Two years later he heard that there was some high ground down river and went to investigate. He found a few ridges that Indians occupied and established a fort there. It grew into the third largest port in the US. (Dumb Frenchmen indeed.) Those same ridges did not flood this hurricane nor in the three previous floods I witnessed. New Orleans is not built below sea level, but some of it is in the newest areas where they filled in marshes for housing. What outsiders don't understand is that Lake Pontchartrain fills up with the storm surge and becomes about six to eight feet above sea level. This is what floods the lakefront and newer areas of the city during a hurricane. It usually takes about two weeks to return to normal sea level and drain. What has made it bad this time is two fold. First they built a sea wall, not a levee, to protect the city from the lake (not the river) during hurricanes. Unfortunately somebody tied a barge to the seawall ahead of the storm and it pounded the sea wall down and allowed the water into the city. The second problem is the same as the first - they built a seawall around the city so the water cannot flow back out into the lake. The height of the lake was greater than ever but the sea wall was high enough to keep the city dry, it just broke because of stupidity in allowing boats and barges to moor to the structure.

Possible.


Erosion is pretty powerful though, think Grand Canyon!

Considering the levee that broke was along the canal between the lake and the river and not on the lake itself, I don't see how that has anything to do with it.

[DU] No!  Bush did it!   [/DU]

Quoted: Considering the levee that broke was along the canal between the lake and the river and not on the lake itself, I don't see how that has anything to do with it.

That makes sense unless the canal is used for barge traffic.  

Here's an excerpt of the e-mail that I received.  I should have put this in my original post since it contains nothing derogatory:

American Indians originally founded New Orleans. When D'Iberville sailed up the Mississippi he established his operations at Baton Rouge. Two years later he heard that there was some high ground down river and went to investigate. He found a few ridges that Indians occupied and established a fort there. It grew into the third largest port in the US. (Dumb Frenchmen indeed.) Those same ridges did not flood this hurricane nor in the three previous floods I witnessed. New Orleans is not built below sea level, but some of it is in the newest areas where they filled in marshes for housing. What outsiders don't understand is that Lake Pontchartrain fills up with the storm surge and becomes about six to eight feet above sea level. This is what floods the lakefront and newer areas of the city during a hurricane. It usually takes about two weeks to return to normal sea level and drain. What has made it bad this time is two fold. First they built a sea wall, not a levee, to protect the city from the lake (not the river) during hurricanes. Unfortunately somebody tied a barge to the seawall ahead of the storm and it pounded the sea wall down and allowed the water into the city. The second problem is the same as the first - they built a seawall around the city so the water cannot flow back out into the lake. The height of the lake was greater than ever but the sea wall was high enough to keep the city dry, it just broke because of stupidity in allowing boats and barges to moor to the structure.

Quoted: Quoted: Considering the levee that broke was along the canal between the lake and the river and not on the lake itself, I don't see how that has anything to do with it. That makes sense unless the canal is used for barge traffic.   Here's an excerpt of the e-mail that I received.  I should have put this in my original post since it contains nothing derogatory: American Indians originally founded New Orleans. When D'Iberville sailed up the Mississippi he established his operations at Baton Rouge. Two years later he heard that there was some high ground down river and went to investigate. He found a few ridges that Indians occupied and established a fort there. It grew into the third largest port in the US. (Dumb Frenchmen indeed.) Those same ridges did not flood this hurricane nor in the three previous floods I witnessed. New Orleans is not built below sea level, but some of it is in the newest areas where they filled in marshes for housing. What outsiders don't understand is that Lake Pontchartrain fills up with the storm surge and becomes about six to eight feet above sea level. This is what floods the lakefront and newer areas of the city during a hurricane. It usually takes about two weeks to return to normal sea level and drain. What has made it bad this time is two fold. First they built a sea wall, not a levee, to protect the city from the lake (not the river) during hurricanes. Unfortunately somebody tied a barge to the seawall ahead of the storm and it pounded the sea wall down and allowed the water into the city. The second problem is the same as the first - they built a seawall around the city so the water cannot flow back out into the lake. The height of the lake was greater than ever but the sea wall was high enough to keep the city dry, it just broke because of stupidity in allowing boats and barges to moor to the structure.

Quick! Find the first barge owned by a Democrat and blame it on that one!