Is Bush to Blame for New Orleans Flooding?
He did slash funding for levee projects. But the Army Corps of Engineers
says Katrina was just too strong.
September 2, 2005
Summary
Some critics are suggesting President Bush was as least partly responsible
for the flooding in New Orleans. In a widely quoted opinion piece, former
Clinton
aide Sidney Blumenthal says that "the damage wrought by the hurricane may
not entirely be the result of an act of nature," and cites years of reduced
funding
for federal flood-control projects around New Orleans.
Our fact-checking confirms that Bush indeed cut funding for projects
specifically designed to strengthen levees. Indeed, local officials had been
complaining
about that for years.
It is not so clear whether the money Bush cut from levee projects would have
made any difference, however, and we're not in a position to judge that. The
Army Corps of Engineers - which is under the President's command and has its
own reputation to defend - insists that Katrina was just too strong, and
that
even if the levee project had been completed it was only designed to
withstand a category 3 hurricane.
Analysis
We suspect this subject will get much more attention in Congress and
elsewhere in the coming months. Without blaming or absolving Bush, here are
the key
facts we've been able to establish so far:
Bush Cut Funding
Blumenthal's much-quoted article in salon.com carried the headline: "No one
can say they didn't see it coming." And it said the Bush administration cut
flood-control funding "to pay for the Iraq war."
He continues:
Block quote start
Blumenthal: With its main levee broken, the evacuated city of New Orleans
has become part of the Gulf of Mexico . But the damage wrought by the
hurricane
may not entirely be the result of an act of nature.
.By 2003 the federal funding for the flood control project essentially dried
up as it was drained into the Iraq war. In 2004, the Bush administration cut
funding requested by the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers for holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80
percent.
Additional cuts at the beginning of this year.forced the New Orleans
district of the Corps to impose a hiring freeze.
Block quote end
We can confirm that funding was cut. The project most closely associated
with preventing flooding in New Orleans was the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
' Hurricane
Protection Project, which was "designed to protect residents between Lake
Pontchartrain and the Missisippi River levee from surges in Lake
Pontchartrain,"
according to a
fact sheet
from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. (The fact sheet is dated May 23, long
before Katrina). The multi-decade project involved building new levees,
enlarging
existing levees, and updating other protections like floodwalls. It was
scheduled to be completed in 2015.
Over at least the past several budget cycles, the Corps has received
substantially less money than it requested for the Lake Pontchartrain
project, even
though Congress restored much of the money the President cut from the amount
the Corps requested.
In fiscal year 2004, the Corps requested $11 million for the project. The
President's budget allocated $3 million, and Congress furnished $5.5
million.
Similarly, in fiscal 2005 the Corps requested $22.5 million, which the
President cut to $3.9 million in his budget. Congress increased that to $5.5
million.
"This was insufficient to fund new construction contracts," according to a
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' project fact sheet. The Corps reported that
"seven
new contracts are being delayed due to lack funds" [sic].
The President proposed $3 million for the project in the budget for fiscal
2006, which begins Oct. 1. "This will be insufficient to fund new
construction
projects," the fact sheet stated. It says the Corps "could spend $20 million
if funds were provided." The Corps of Engineers goes on to say:
Block quote start
Army Corps of Engineers, May 23: In Orleans Parish, two major pump stations
are threatened by hurricane storm surges. Major contracts need to be awarded
to provide fronting protection for them. Also, several levees have settled
and need to be raised to provide the design protection. The current funding
shortfalls in fiscal year 2005 and fiscal year 2006 will prevent the Corps
from addressing these pressing needs.
Block quote end
The Corps has seen cutbacks beyond those affecting just the Lake
Pontchartrain project. The Corps oversees SELA, or the Southeast Louisiana
Urban Flood
Control project, which Congress authorized after six people died from
flooding in May 1995. The Times-Picayune newspaper of New Orleans reported
that,
overall, the Corps had spent $430 million on flood control and hurricane
prevention, with local governments offering more than $50 million toward the
project.
Nonetheless, "at least $250 million in crucial projects remained," the
newspaper said.
In the past five years, the amount of money spent on all Corps construction
projects in the New Orleans district has declined by 44 percent, according
to
the New Orleans CityBusiness newspaper, from $147 million in 2001 to $82
million in the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
A long history of complaints
Local officials had long complained that funding for hurricane protection
projects was inadequate:
List of 3 items
. October 13, 2001: The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that "federal
officials are postponing new projects of the Southeast Louisiana Flood
Control
Program, or SELA, fearing that federal budget constraints and the cost of
the war on terrorism may create a financial pinch for the program." The
paper
went on to report that "President Bush's budget proposed $52 million" for
SELA in the 2002 fiscal year. The House approved $57 million and the Senate
approved
$62 million. Still, "the $62 million would be well below the $80 million
that corps officials estimate is needed to pay for the next 12 months of
construction,
as well as design expenses for future projects."
. April 24, 2004: The Times-Picayune reported that "less money is available
to the Army Corps of Engineers to build levees and water projects in the
Missisippi
River valley this year and next year." Meanwhile, an engineer who had direct
the Louisiana Coastal Area Ecosystem Restoration Study - a study of how to
restore coastal wetlands areas in order to provide a bugger from hurricane
storm surges - was sent to Iraq "to oversee the restoration of the 'Garden
of
Eden' wetlands at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers," for which
President Bush's 2005 gave $100 million.
. June 8, 2004: Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson
Parish, told the Times-Picayune:
list end
Block quote start
Block quote start
Walter Maestri: It appears that the money has been moved in the president's
budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq , and I suppose that'
s
the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished,
and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security
issue for us.
Block quote end
Block quote end
List of 2 items
. September 22, 2004: The Times-Picayune reported that a pilot study on
raising the height of the levees surrounding New Orleans had been completed
and
generated enough information for a second study necessary to estimate the
cost of doing so. The Bush administration "ordered the New Orleans district
office"
of the Army Corps of Engineers "not to begin any new studies, and the 2005
budget no longer includes the needed money."
. June 6, 2005: The New Orleans CityBusiness newspaper reported that the New
Orleans district of the Corps was preparing for a $71.2 million reduction in
overall funding for the fiscal year beginning in October. That would have
been the largest single-year funding loss ever. They noted that money "was
so
tight" that "the New Orleans district, which employs 1,300 people,
instituted a hiring freeze last month on all positions," which was "the
first of its
kind in about 10 years."
list end
Block quote start
Would Increased Funding Have Prevented Flooding?
Block quote end
Blumenthal implies that increased funding might have helped to prevent the
catastrophic flooding that New Orleans now faces. The White House denies
that,
and the Corps of Engineers says that even the levee project they were
working to complete was not designed to withstand a storm of Katrina's
force.
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, at a press briefing on
September 1, dismissed the idea that the President inadequately funded flood
control
projects in New Orleans :
Block quote start
McClellan: Flood control has been a priority of this administration from day
one. We have dedicated an additional $300 million over the last few years
for
flood control in New Orleans and the surrounding area. And if you look at
the overall funding levels for the Army Corps of Engineers, they have been
slightly
above $4.5 billion that has been signed by the President.
Q: Local people were asking for more money over the last couple of years.
They were quoted in local papers in 2003 and 2004, are saying that they were
told
by federal officials there wasn't enough money because it was going to Iraq
expenditures.
McClellan: You might want to talk to General Strock, who is the commander of
the Army Corps of Engineers, because I think he's talked to some reporters
already and talked about some of these issues. I think some people maybe
have tried to make a suggestion or imply that certain funding would have
prevented
the flooding from happening, and he has essentially said there's been
nothing to suggest that whatsoever, and it's been more of a design issue
with the
levees.
Block quote end
We asked the Corps about that "design issue." David Hewitt, a spokesman for
the Army Corps of Engineers, said McClellan was referring to the fact that
"the
levees were designed for a category 3 hurricane." He told us that,
consequently, "when it became apparent that this was a category 5 hurricane,
an evacuation
of the city was ordered." (A category 3 storm has sustained winds of no more
than 130 miles per hour, while a category 5 storm has winds exceeding 155
miles per hour. Katrina had winds of 160 mph as it approached shore, but
later weakened to winds of 140 mph as it made landfall, making it a strong
category
4 storm, according to the National Hurricane Center.)
The levee upgrade project around Lake Pontchartrain was only 60 to 90
percent complete across most areas of New Orleans as of the end of May,
according
to the Corps' May 23 fact sheet. Still, even if it had been completed, the
project's goal was protecting New Orleans from storm surges up to "a
fast-moving
Category 3 hurricane," according to the fact sheet.
We don't know whether the levees would have done better had the work been
completed. But the Corps says that even a completed levee project wasn't
designed
for the storm that actually occurred.
Nobody anticipated breach of the levees?
In an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America" on September 1, President
Bush said:
Block quote start
Bush: I don't think anyone anticipated breach of the levees .Now we're
having to deal with it, and will.
Block quote end
Bush is technically correct that a "breach" wasn't anticipated by the Corps,
but that's doesn't mean the flooding wasn't forseen. It was. But the Corps
thought it would happen differently, from water washing over the levees,
rather than cutting wide breaks in them.
Greg Breerword, a deputy district engineer for project management with the
Army Corps of Engineers, told the New York Times:
Block quote start
Breerword: We knew if it was going to be a Category 5, some levees and some
flood walls would be overtopped. We never did think they would actually be
breached.
Block quote end
And while Bush is also technically correct that the Corps did not
"anticipate" a breach - in the sense that they believed it was a likely
event - at least
some in the Corps thought a breach was a possibility worth examining.
According to the Times-Picayune, early in Bush's first term FEMA director
Joe Allbaugh ordered a sophisticated computer simulation of what would
happen
if a category 5 storm hit New Orleans. Joseph Suhayda, an engineer at
Louisana State University who worked on the project, described to the
newspaper in
2002 what the simulation showed could happen:
Block quote start
Subhayda: Another scenario is that some part of the levee would fail. It's
not something that's expected. But erosion occurs, and as levees broke, the
break
will get wider and wider. The water will flow through the city and stop only
when it reaches the next higher thing. The most continuous barrier is the
south levee, along the river. That's 25 feet high, so you'll see the water
pile up on the river levee.
Block quote end
Whether or not a "breach" was "anticipated," the fact is that many
individuals have been warning for decades about the threat of flooding that
a hurricane
could pose to a set below sea level and sandwiched between major waterways.
A Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) report from before September
11,
2001 detailed the three most likely catastrophic disasters that could happen
in the United States: a terrorist attack in New York, a strong earthquake
in San Francisco, and a hurricane strike in New Orleans. In 2002, New
Orleans officials held the simulation of what would happen in a category 5
storm.
Walter Maestri, the emergency coordinator of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans
, recounted the outcome to PBS' NOW With Bill Moyers:
Block quote start
Maestri, September 2002: Well, when the exercise was completed it was
evidence that we were going to lose a lot of people. We changed the name of
the [simulated]
storm from Delaney to K-Y-A-G-B... kiss your ass goodbye... because anybody
who was here as that category five storm came across... was gone.
Block quote end
--by Matthew Barge
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