Could have those three levee breaches been plugged quicker?

Kolesar

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Sun Sep-11-05 06:50 AM
Original message

Could have those three levee breaches been plugged quicker?

Lake Ponchartrain was pouring into New Orleans like three small rivers. Could the US government have stopped that flow by dropping the 3000 pound sandbags and pushing earth into the edges faster? As it was, they were just "working on it" until such time that Lake Ponchartrain drained the ten feet of hurricane swell back into the Gulf and quit flowing into the city. The Corp of Engineers actually cut openings in the levees to let the water out of the city eventually.

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acmejack

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Sun Sep-11-05 06:54 AM
Response to Original message

1. Intriguingly, there are multiple reports of blasting.

Could we have seen a repeat of the flood early last century when the levees were dynamited to spare the valuable parts of New Orleans? I have seen reports where evacuees are saying they heard blasting.

Foil hat? Perhaps, but I no longer put anything at all past these people.

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Kolesar

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Sun Sep-11-05 07:19 AM
Response to Reply #1

2. It looks like a single pond covers the flooded parts of the city

So an attempted sacrifice of the "low rent district" apparently failed. I have a newspaper graphic of the below-sea level parts of New Orleans. It is on my desk at work and I cannot view it now.

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acmejack

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Sun Sep-11-05 07:31 AM
Response to Reply #2

4. I find it interesting so many claim to have heard blasting.

Of course, the perceptions of traumatized people can be erroneous.

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Kolesar

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Sun Sep-11-05 07:42 AM
Response to Reply #4

7. And the people who heard it are now scattered to many states

It would take a big reporting/investigating effort to sort this out.

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elfin

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Sun Sep-11-05 07:31 AM
Response to Original message

3. I recall that either the gov. or mayor

Edited on Sun Sep-11-05 07:31 AM by elfin

called for sandbagging early on, but FEMA or some other national entity said that the first task of the helicopters was to find survivors - and they didn't sandbag for that reason.

Never mind that the breeches casued more deaths or that the number of helis probably lower due to Iraq.

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blitzburgh55

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Sun Sep-11-05 07:34 AM
Response to Reply #3

5. Nagin called for the sandbagging

"The sandbagging that we had hoped would happen didn't materialize today, so the water continued to rise at that particular location," he said.

Nagin said the sandbagging was scheduled for midday, but the Blackhawk helicopters needed to help did not show up. He said the sandbags were ready and all the helicopter had to do was "show up." He said after his afternoon helicopter tour of the city, he was assured that officials had a plan and a timeline to drop the sandbags on the levee breach.

He said he was told that the helicopters may have been diverted to rescue about 1,000 people in a church, but he is still not sure who gave the order.

http://www.wdsu.com/weather/4917809/detail.html

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Kolesar

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Sun Sep-11-05 07:41 AM
Response to Reply #5

6. That's what I wanted to know! Thank you.

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ToolTex

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Sun Sep-11-05 08:16 AM
Response to Reply #5

8. This is the smoking gun.

The Corps had all Tuesday to plug the levee, and didn't make a single flight. By Wednesday morning the pumps were inundated, so the city was lost.

The Dutch have known for centuries that a single boy can plug the dike and save a country. Why didn't the Corps of Engineers know it. Oh, they did know it, you say!

Why doesn't the MSM report this?

It was murder, pure and simple.

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rfkrfk

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Sun Sep-11-05 09:04 AM
Response to Original message

9. why was not, dump trucks driven into the canal{s} entrance

Edited on Sun Sep-11-05 09:06 AM by rfkrfk

at the lake, to block water flow

add, secured by wire rope...
school busses
cars
garbage trucks

dynamite Hammond Hiway,
push everything into the water

edit, add...
same thing for Robert E Lee Blvd, and the
London ave canal

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lindisfarne

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Sun Sep-11-05 04:40 PM
Response to Original message

10. If the federal government had responded faster and with more resources,

YES

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