Don't Blame Bush

It turns out, Bush cannot possibly be blamed for the flooding in New Orleans. The section of levee that gave way was renovated just this Summer. It was thick cement instead of packed earth. The engineers in charge admit that this was the section they thought was least likely to fail.

Worse for the editorial writers were statements by the chief engineer of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Lt. Gen Carl Strock: "I don't see that the level of funding was really a contributing factor in this case. Had this project been fully complete, it is my opinion that based on the intensity of this storm that the flooding of the business district and the French Quarter would have still taken place."

See more here including a discussion about Louisiana's sinking coastline.

This article looks at our current vulnerability to hurricane strikes because of the amount of development in danger zones.

Adjusted to 2004 dollars, Hurricane Andrew of 1992 was the costliest hurricane on record, at about $44 billion. It remains to be seen whether the Katrina event will exceed this record. If it does, it will be more attributable to the desire of so many people to live and build in coastal areas than to the inherent strength of the hurricane itself. Indeed, if we ask the question, "which land falling hurricane in U.S. history would be the most expensive if it happened today?" the clear front-runner would be the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926. It is estimated that, if that hurricane occurred today, the costs would reach about $110 billion.