Levee update

I haven't worked out who this damages politically, but the Army Corps of Engineers certainly seems to have a few questions to answer. The Washington Post claims that what should have been a "routine hurricane" became "the costliest storm in U.S. history" thanks to design flaws in the floodwalls.

Investigators in recent days have assembled evidence implicating design flaws in the failures of two floodwalls near Lake Pontchartrain that collapsed when weakened soils beneath them became saturated and began to slide. They also have confirmed that a little-used navigation canal helped amplify and intensify Katrina's initial surge, contributing to a third floodwall collapse on the east side of town. The walls and navigation canal were built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the agency responsible for defending the city against hurricane-related flooding.

The Corps is not ready to accept these preliminary findings, which indicate that the problem started many decades ago.