Paper rain, Paper rain...St. Bernard and 9th Ward STILL "Bastards of the Party"

This draft's been sitting for nearly a month now. Responding to his comment on my 4/30 post, I told Clifton over at Cliff's Crib, "I read how they used newspaper as fill in the levee repair in the 9th Ward – I plan to blog on that today because I need a damn break from this election game!" Well, I did take a break, but as that pesky thing called Life just kept happening, I took a break from all of it - not just the elections. But I'm back now. And after a little catching up, I'll keep moving forward.

The picture above was taken of me standing next to a "repaired" portion of the levee in the Lower 9th Ward during my 2006 volunteer trip to New Orleans. I remember saying to the person taking the picture, "Shit! This is only about twice my height! How much water will this hold back?" Seems that was only one of a couple, more important considerations about which I should have been asking. At least that's what my usual FeedBlitz email update from thinknola.com. said on April 29th. In that update, Alan Gutierrez posted one new article: "Truth Stranger Than Fiction: Army Corps of Engineers Building Levees out of Newspaper." What??!! He was talking about expansion joints - those dark, vertical lines neatly spaced across the floodwall in the photo above (don't some of them look wet?). Who knew?

After reading the post, the comments and following all the links (this April 24th link from a local television station, "4 Investigates: Floodwalls stuffed with newspaper?" had a pretty interesting video showing the actual newspaper, dated May 21, 2006, being pulled from an expansion joint), I just sat back and said, "What the hell else???" It didn't take long for me to get an answer. Two days later, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) scrambled to publicly defend the "leak" (pun definitely intended) in this April 26th article in the Times-Picayune, "Corps explains newspaper's use in floodwall."

Okay, never mind the Corps used unlicensed contractors and paid them a huge chunk of taxpayers' money to do half-assed work. And never mind the Corps said there were only three gaps in which this newspaper-stuffing "repair technique" occurred - I just have to ask, "AND THAT'S OKAY??"

Really now, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in St. Bernard (thanks to MR-GO) and devastated the 9th Ward and it's really okay the three gaps were only in these areas? Jesus!!! Along with impeaching George Bush and indicting every damned member of his administration, can somebody revoke that immunity from prosecution USACE so enjoys so they can feel just a smidgen of the pain and discomfort New Orleanians are still experiencing? Okay I'll admit it -I grew up liking the "The Avengers!"

But as my grandmother used to say when I'd ask her if things would ever change, she'd say, "Yeah, if you sit dey long enuf, it sho' will" (she meant it could get worse if we do nothing). So can enough of us at least get up off our asses and demand that 8/29 investigation? I mean dammit!!

And just as I sat there long enough, here came something else. Hindsight is surely 20-20 isn't it? My earlier question about how much water this will hold back is haunting at best, particularly given this article: "Katrina-Battered New Orleans Levee Leaking." In my February 9th post, I said, "...picture this: You're 6ft. tall standing in a 2ft. hole of mulch. A 6ft. wall of water hits you. Where the hell would you end up? By the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' own admission, areas where the levees broke could not even have withstood storm surges of six feet, forget what Hurricane Katrina threw at them!" Now - more wet spots!

Given the fact outside experts stated in the article, "...the type of seepage spotted at the 17th Street Canal in the Lakeview neighborhood afflicts other New Orleans levees, too, and could cause some of them to collapse during a storm..." isn't it obvious that St. Bernard and the 9th Ward continue to be the pretty much neglected "Bastards of the Party" (you should really check out that documentary!)? USACE, FEMA and a lot of Americans have all just thrown them a bone, still not realizing that the state of their safety remains just as, or even more relevant today as on the day Katrina landed.

If the federal government doesn't own that fact and do something way more significant besides throwing good money after bad - we'll all be holding our collective breaths during this, and every hurricane season from here on out.

I chose not to expound on any of these stories because I'd really prefer you click on the links, read the articles and watch the video for yourselves. After you do all of that, come back and tell me - "it's all good." If you do, idealistic me will know exactly, the kind of "stuff" of which we Americans are made.