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Congress mandated that the construction of 670 miles of wall along the border between the United States and Mexico, including 70 miles in the Rio Grande Valley, to be finished by Dec. 31, 2008. So far, only two segments of the wall - both in Hidalgo County - have actually been started, and construction on the other five Hidalgo County segments is expected to begin by early next month, reports The Brownsville Herald.
As we reported:
After the Federal Emergency Management Agency determined the 40-year-old levees along the Rio Grande were inadequate to handle potential floods, DHS – FEMA’s parent agency -- saw the need for repairs as a way to advance their goal of a border wall.
Although many Texas officials from the affected counties have fought against the border wall, many have come to support the plan that combines the border wall with the much-needed levee repairs that would hold back floodwater from a swollen Rio Grande. FEMA announced last spring that if the levees weren't repaired, much of Hidalgo County would be designated a special flood hazard area.
But the Texas Border Coalition (TBC), a collective of Texas border mayors, county judges, and economic development commissions, has criticized the dangers of the wall’s construction in the middle of hurricane season.
“The footings of the levees are being destroyed in the construction process so that the Department of Homeland Security can erect 18-foot concrete walls in their place. It is incredibly short-sighted that the government would open the levees at the same time that the danger is highest for devastating floods in the middle of hurricane season,” Eagle Pass, Texas Mayor Chad Foster said in a press release following Hurricane Dolly.
TBC has also criticized DHS’ plans for a moveable wall, something they argue is not a sustainable or a realistic option during a hurricane evacuation. According to a recent TBC press release:
…DHS says it will construct 14 miles of fencing that can be removed when a hurricane bears down on Roma, Rio Grande City and Los Ebanos in Texas. The movable wall would be made of 89,000 steel bollards, each 18 feet above ground. Each bollard, filled with concrete to 10 feet high, would weight about 1,700 pounds. To achieve its goal of removing the wall during a hurricane, DHS would have to haul away 151 million pounds of unwieldy pipe filled with concrete in 24 hours.
"No one with experience managing an evacuation in advance of a hurricane believes that the DHS plan has any foundation in reality,” Foster said. “DHS planners have engineered a fantasy.”
With the Texas coast’s large number of poor people and immigrants, and questionable safety of border wall and levee projects, the risk posed by Hurricane Ike continues to grow.
http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2008/09/ike-coverage-most-vulnerable.aspAssholes! Under the guise of constuction and repair, there is a heinous motive!
What else have their motives been under the cover of "helping people?":banghead:
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