If you live in the USA, ever wonder where the money went to rebuild levees

Levees made out of newspaper. Video in the Video forum.

(((((((((((chalmeette70043))))))))))))
I saw the video you posted and found it very disturbing that they would do that.

You've gotta be kidding! I'll have to check it out later.

<font color="purple">Dear older generations,
Please do a better job at electing your officials next time.
With love,
The younger generations. </font>

The article that goes with vid

Lee Zurik / WWL-TV News Anchor

“It blows my mind.”



Video: Watch the Story Those are the words St. Bernard parish president Craig Taffaro used to watch videotape Eyewitness News showed him, of floodwalls built to protect his parish.

“That should be criminal,” Taffaro continues.

What he's talking about was witnessed by a St. Bernard Parish resident who didn't want to be identified, but did have sharp criticism of the work done by a contractor hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“It's like putting a Band-Aid on the hole of a gas tank of an airplane,” the resident said.

Instead of an airplane, it's a floodwall, and instead of a Band-Aid, the witness says two years ago, he saw the contractor filling the expansion joint or opening between the floodwalls with newspaper.

“The whole length of the wall was stuffed with newspaper.”

And when he confronted the contractor, the contractor blamed Washington for the substandard work.

“He basically told me when Congress sent down the money, it would be repaired the proper way.”

But during a recent trip to the area, two years later, it was apparent that didn't happen. Much of the newspaper had deteriorated or been eaten by bugs, but some still remained. In fact WWL cameras even captured the date May 21, 2006, on a page of the Parade magazine from the Times-Picayune.

Eyewitness News asked local engineer Subhash Kulkarni to investigate the findings at the floodwall.

“They should have done a better job than what you see here.”

Kulkarni is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. The ASCE named him outstanding civil engineer in Louisiana back in 2003.

“I cannot even comprehend that somebody would stuff some newspaper in there.”

Engineers tell Eyewitness News an expansion joint has three lines of defense. The first is an elastic strip that helps keep water out. In the middle is the most important part, a waterstop, which is in fact included in the St. Bernard floodwall. However what is missing is a rubber joint that goes in between and helps keep foreign objects out.

The witness who talked to Eyewitness News says the contractor used the newspaper in place of the rubber joint. Kulkarni says it's not a short term risk, but over time that missing rubber joint could weaken that waterstop.

“It could be very serious,” Kulkarni said. “It doesn't take a lot of stress to cause the failure of these floodwalls. We don't know after two or three years how the main joint will perform. This is the first line of defense.”

But the Army Corps of Engineers says it is confident the floodwall will sufficiently defend residents of St. Bernard and the Ninth Ward.

“If you look at the repairs we made to the joints, there's not really a safety issue with the joints at all,” said Kevin Wagner with the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Corps also says it’s satisfied with the quality of work done by its contractor. When asked by WWL if there was any shoddy work involved, Wagner said, “I don't think so at all.”

But days before that interview, after a request by Eyewitness News , another Corps employee e-mailed the Corps’ standards for expansion joint construction and in that e-mail, the Corps employee describes the specific materials needed as "sponge rubber" that goes next to the waterstop. That’s the same spot where a witness saw a contractor stuffing newspaper back in 2006.

When asked if the absence of material behind the waterstop was what was called for in the contract, Corps spokesman Kevin Wagner called the project an emergency repair.

“If we would have built a new floodwall that would not have been the case. We would have the waterstop, some joint filler material in between and then we would put an elastic sealer over the top of it,” Wagner said. “In this case we tried to do the repairs as quick as possible to protect the water stop before the start of hurricane season.”

But according to the contract obtained by Eyewitness News, that may not be the case. The contract calls for Ercon Corporation, based in Lafayette, Louisiana, to do the almost $2 million of work to raise and repair the floodwall under the Paris Road bridge.

In the contract, WWL found at least four mentions of field molded sealants. Kulkarni says that is the sponge rubber material to fill the cavity in the expansion joint. And he says the contract shows the rubber material was contractually required to be installed.

“I would say they have not met their obligation to install the joint correctly. They haven't installed it at all,” Kulkarni said.

Eyewitness News contacted the president of Ercon Corporation by phone and e-mail. He didn't respond to our repeated requests for a comment on this story. Further, our investigation revealed Ercon Corporation is not even licensed by the state's board for contractors. The Corps of Engineers says as long as the federal government pays for the work, it does not prevent them from hiring an unlicensed Louisiana company.

“If you're telling me this is an out of town contractor who drives back to wherever they're from and puts their head on the pillow at night, does it really matter to them that this particular part of the project fails?” St. Bernard president Craig Taffaro asks.

Taffaro calls the response from the Corps and Contractor unacceptable.

“Would they let a contractor put Play-Doh in the place of mortar when they put bricks on their house? No, I don't think so,” Taffaro said.

He says while newspaper doesn't define the entire levee system, it does have him concerned about the oversight of all work being done in southeast Louisiana.

“It's an indictment against the quality of work being done,” Taffaro says. “Let’s hope that same standard wasn't being used in constructing the floodwall in constructing the levees.”

Thats awful, but no suprise the federal goverment is corrupt and inept, if that contractor had been doing the work for a private company he would have been sued for breach of agreement and never get another job again.

Now those of you who want our health care nationalized, read the article Muffy posted, carefully, because that will be the same competance you will get if we go that route, is that what everybody really wants?

The Government sucks at everything it does domestically. We would be far better off if our roads, schools, and other institutions were privatized.

On behalf of the hard-working American tax payers I would like to apologize to Chalmette and all the others affected directly by Katrina. There is absoulutly no excuse for the (pardon my French) pis poor performance you all have received from the various federal agencies since this disaster occured. It has been inexcusable.

It is not going to be a matter of electing Democrats or Republicans. Nothing short of a complete top to bottom review of the function of every aspect of the government is needed. Or as Robert Stack says in "Beavis and Butthead do America, " Full Cavity search, Go Deep"

Sorry for the long post this just makes me very angry.

((((((Chalmette)))))

i just watched the video and it's scary to think they can get away with that.

i hope you all manage to get it sorted now it's come out...and i really do hope you all manage to stay safe meantime.

thinking of you all down there.

There was a short news report on last night with the Corps of Engineers saying they are going to repair those parts of the levee. We'll have to wait and see if it does actually happen.

Some history here of saving the city of New Orleans. There is a man made canal called the MRGO that is a shortcut made from the Mississppi River near the Gulf. It divides St. bernard Parish and the 9th Ward from the City of New Orleans (Bourbon St., Jackson Square, the tourist section of the city). This MRGO is like a funnel that brings the surge of water from a storm right up it that overflows if a large storm, if a small storm it is okay. But a federal law has been passed in early 2006 that makes St Bernard Parish and the 9th Ward a spillway, which mean they will bomb the levees to save the city. In 1927 that is what happened to save the city. Then in 1969, during Hurricane Betsy, the same thing was done. For Katrina barges were left along this part of the MRGO and not moved all along the MRGO. There was a woman who lived in the 9th ward that my brother ran across in the escape from the high waters at the evacuation shelter that said she watched from her second story window the barges banging against the levee wall until it broke through. That water came in from the MRGO and flooded immediatly the 9th Ward. The barges left under the Paris Road Bridge broke through the levees there and the surge also overtopped the levees in that area. Everyone that lives in the 9th ward and St. Bernard Parish nows damn well this was done on purpose. There were many rumors after the storm that the Corps Of Engineers blew the levees. But i think it was the barges left that broke through. There are pictures online you can find of a barge sitting right on top of where homes use to be in the 9th ward.

And if we get any storm, even a catagory 1 storm. We will be under a mandatory warning to evacuate cause of the federal law to blow the levees to save the city.

Right after the storm happened we were told by the federal government and President Bush who stood in front of the St Louis Cathedral and told our region we have nothing to worry about. That we will rebuilt with the 100 year levees. There was 2,000,000 dollars alotted to rebuild the levees along the MRGO and we are still waiting for that to be done.

We were lied to. And we believed these to be truths. So we came back and rebuilt. But i can tell you, all of those who came back in St. bernard and 9th ward regret coming back. we are destined to be punished and wiped off this earth if another storm is to hit us.

Just a little truth to what has happened down here. Not what you hear from the federal govt. or the media.

chalmette

Personally I wouldn't take the government's word on anything. I guess thinking all politicians are crooks doesn't help any...but after so many years of hearing lie after lie from them it doesn't help to challenge my thinking, either.



Hang in there.

Huge hugs ((((CHALMETTE)))))

Please hear what I'm going to say.... .....

I know you are hurting You know I know how... I've been there....

As long as you continue to find things (yes, real, actual things in truth) that cause you to be more angry... the farther away YOUR healing is from this trauma.

No one NO ONE person can change what is, whether it's with the government or the companies and families that benefit from the government's expeditures... so unless you plan on leaving there and going to Wash DC as a lobbyist...

you gotta give it up hon. Take small steps (if you haven't begun already) and try to not notice these things... they are a fact of life.

First, begin to heal.... there's plenty of time to battle later, if you find you want to and can.

I say this is all sincerity and love. You know I'm not minimizing what you have been through and part of "why." I'm trying to tell you the things that someone told me that helped me...

You gotta focus on you.