Report Blames Corps for Levee Breaches

SandBar Printer-Friendly Article
Report Blames Corps for Levee Breaches Sarah E. Spigener, 2L, University of Mississippi School of Law After Hurricane Katrina struck, the Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD), Johnny B. Bradberry, commissioned “Team Louisiana,” a team of Louisiana academic experts and engineers, to collect and document evidence related to the failure of levee systems in the Greater New Orleans (GNO) area. Team Louisiana submitted a final report, “The Failure of the New Orleans Levee System during Hurricane Katrina,”1 in February 2006, which was released by the DOTD on March 21, 2007. The report focuses on the hurricane protection system (HPS) designed and constructed over a 40-year period by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) for the East Bank of the GNO. The report claims that decades of incompetence and neglect by the Corps allowed Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge to devastate New Orleans. The report further alleges that the agency supervisors ignored increases in the threat level for their project, knowingly built levees and floodwalls lower than congressionally mandated, failed to detect or ignored obvious errors during the review process, underestimated the impact of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet (MRGO) on the city’s defenses, and failed to properly maintain the system. The report also calls for the state and Congress to hold “8-29 Commissions” for a full investigation of the disaster to explain why decisions were made the way they were, passage of a “Katrina Recovery Bill” to ensure coastal restoration and flood protection are fully financed by the federal government, and more transparency on the part of federal and state authorities when discussing flood protection plans. Team Louisiana also recommends an investigation of the integrity and safety of all existing federal and state levee systems and of all existing federal navigation projects in coastal areas in Louisiana. This report, as well as previous national ones with similar conclusions, may benefit some New Orleans residents. In a pending case, Robinson v. United States, New Orleans residents are suing the Corps for the negligent construction and maintenance of the MRGO. They claim that the flooding that resulted in their area was a combination of failed levees and of a decrease in the natural wetland protection caused by the MRGO. The Louisiana District Court has recently upheld the plaintiffs’ right to bring the suit by overruling a motion to dismiss initiated by the Corps.2 Endnotes 1. Team Louisiana, La. Dep't of Transp. and Dev., The Failure of the New Orleans Levee System during Hurricane Katrina (Mar. 23, 2007), available at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118485134/abstract . 2. Robinson v. United States, C.A. No. 06-2268, Document 2994 (E.D. La. Feb. 2, 2007)
Please report any broken links or other problems to the Webmaster Site Map University of Mississippi

Report Blames Corps for Levee Breaches

Sarah E. Spigener, 2L, University of Mississippi School of Law

After Hurricane Katrina struck, the Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD), Johnny B. Bradberry, commissioned “Team Louisiana,” a team of Louisiana academic experts and engineers, to collect and document evidence related to the failure of levee systems in the Greater New Orleans (GNO) area. Team Louisiana submitted a final report, “The Failure of the New Orleans Levee System during Hurricane Katrina,”1 in February 2006, which was released by the DOTD on March 21, 2007. The report focuses on the hurricane protection system (HPS) designed and constructed over a 40-year period by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) for the East Bank of the GNO.

The report claims that decades of incompetence and neglect by the Corps allowed Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge to devastate New Orleans. The report further alleges that the agency supervisors ignored increases in the threat level for their project, knowingly built levees and floodwalls lower than congressionally mandated, failed to detect or ignored obvious errors during the review process, underestimated the impact of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet (MRGO) on the city’s defenses, and failed to properly maintain the system. The report also calls for the state and Congress to hold “8-29 Commissions” for a full investigation of the disaster to explain why decisions were made the way they were, passage of a “Katrina Recovery Bill” to ensure coastal restoration and flood protection are fully financed by the federal government, and more transparency on the part of federal and state authorities when discussing flood protection plans. Team Louisiana also recommends an investigation of the integrity and safety of all existing federal and state levee systems and of all existing federal navigation projects in coastal areas in Louisiana.

This report, as well as previous national ones with similar conclusions, may benefit some New Orleans residents. In a pending case, Robinson v. United States, New Orleans residents are suing the Corps for the negligent construction and maintenance of the MRGO. They claim that the flooding that resulted in their area was a combination of failed levees and of a decrease in the natural wetland protection caused by the MRGO. The Louisiana District Court has recently upheld the plaintiffs’ right to bring the suit by overruling a motion to dismiss initiated by the Corps.2

Endnotes
1. Team Louisiana, La. Dep't of Transp. and Dev., The Failure of the New Orleans Levee System during Hurricane Katrina (Mar. 23, 2007), available at
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118485134/abstract .
2. Robinson v. United States, C.A. No. 06-2268, Document 2994 (E.D. La. Feb. 2, 2007)