(Quality rumor) Levees opened on purpose routinely [View All]

[Robb]

This is the story from a buddy in the Houston press gaggle. According to reliable, if credulous, buddy, who has been going around doing quickie interviews with people inside the Astrodome, the 800-pound gorilla in the room is that in interview after interview, survivors there are telling journalists that their neighborhoods were routinely flooded, albeit only slightly, whenever the water was getting too high.
Apparently it was a standing practice to run a small amount of excess water through the poorer neighborhoods when the water built up. Usually it was just a few inches.
The belief among people being housed in the Astrodome is that this happened again, only this time there was waaaay more water behind there than usual, and the practice backfired and led to failure.
Again, not only a rumor, but also a rumored perception. Add grain of salt before serving. ;) Anyone else heard anything similar?