Weasel words from the Army Corp. of Engineers?

[Kingshakabobo]

"The levee was at its final design capacity"

It may have been completed to specs but not to the ideal specs. To the specs that fit the budget, yes.

I thought I read somewhere that the architects wanted to build higher but they had a budget.

Edit to add: referencing the MSNBC news conference coverage.

[rocktivity]

1. The levee wasn't FINISHED

They got 80% of it fortified before Bush pulled the funding in 2003. That alone should have been grounds for beginning an evacuation last Friday.

:headbang:
rocknation

[sattahipdeep]

2. Orleans Locks

[Bonhomme Richard]

3. I saw that guy interviewed the other night and

he explained that they did a cost/ benefit analysis and they determined that category 3 was all that was worth preparing for. I explained to my wife that Cost/ Benefit analysis put a value per human life and that is how it is calculated.
Probably figured that the wealthy and those living on high ground would be OK and the value of the poor blacks did not warrant the extra expense.
It's purely business.

[necso]

4. Certainly there should be

engineering/status reports (and the related plans -- or other documents) that would describe the status of any work efforts.

And perhaps there are also inspection (or other) reports describing the state of the levees, identifying noticeable problems, the (differing) effects of subsidence on the levees, etc. (Were these random places where the levees broke -- or were these breaks in known problem areas?)

And certainly, there should be some "after-action" report, describing why the levees failed (it will probably be a whitewash though).

I, for one, am interested in evidence of the levees being crested (where, and to what extent). And (high-res) satellite photos from Monday might also prove useful for estimating the amount of flooding in the storm's immediate aftermath, and to help determine (then) the amount of this (probably) caused by the rain, the storm surge and breaches in the levees (as detectable by effects if nothing else).