For those of you who read my blog every once and a while, you know that the situation affecting the city of New Orleans post Katrina is something I have attempted to devote a lot of energy too, both from a real-world and academic perspective. Today I read an article that angered me quite extensively regarding the work being done to repair this broken city.

As reported on many news sites today, "despite more than $22 million in repairs, a levee that broke with catastrophic effect during Hurricane Katrina is leaking again because of the mushy ground on which New Orleans was built, raising serious questions about the reliability of the city's flood defenses." The seepage can be spotted at the 17th Street Canal in the Lakeview neighborhood. Although pictures of the levy seepage in this wealthier area of the city were abundant, leaks have been reported at numerous other locations.

This situation is infuriating on two levels. First, it is incomprehensible to me how the Army Corp of Engineers could rebuild the levees to almost pre-Katrina specifications and then be surprised that they would not be up to the task of keeping the city safe. It is evident to me that an independent source needs to responsible, either in an implementation or watchdog capability, for rebuilding the levee system as no one in our government seems willing or capable of doing so. In addition, the levees in and of themselves are not the only problem. Other measures need to be explored regarding different ways to protect the city and affectively respond to a disaster, should one occur again in the future. This is not just a city-wide issue, but one that needs to reach through to the highest levels of government. We all know that our president sat around for five days while the citizens of the city were stranded and helpless. There needs to be effective measures put in place that dictates on a federal level how the government, the state and the city respond to such situations in the future.

The other reason I am angry is something that I have heard so many times during my exploration of this issue, the suggestion that somehow in living in New Orleans, one should simply accept the possibility of a flood as catastrophic as Katrina in the same way that someone in tornado alley should accept the possibility of a tornado. Some people even go as far as to say that rebuilding or returning to the city is pointless as a result. The fact remains that, simply because the city averages between one and two feet below sea level (although obviously alternatively higher and lower in certain locations), does not mean that this is the reason why the city flooded. This entire thought process is ludicrous for many reasons.

First, we need to realize that flooding in and of itself, particularly in this case, is not in fact the "natural disaster". Rather, flooding is the resulting effect OF a natural disaster, such as a hurricane. We can identify this as an effect because its impact is completely dependent upon a particular location’s preparedness and ability to recover post-storm. The effect of flooding on the city of New Orleans was not in fact an effect of hurricane Katrina, therefore, but of a system that failed to protect or assist residents efficiently both before and for a significantly long period after the storm.

Living below sea level is a risk, there is no denying that. But suggesting that somehow residents should simply vacate the city because of the danger is the same as saying that to avoid earthquakes we shouldn't live in California, to avoid hurricanes in general we shouldn't live in Florida or other parts of the southeast or to avoid dangerous winter storms we shouldn't live in the northern most parts of the country. There is risk in living in all of these areas, but risk does not and SHOULD not translate into ambivalence from the public at large. The bottom line is weather is notoriously unpredictable and does not only strike in areas that are known for certain weather patterns or vulnerable to certain weather patterns. In 2006 tornadoes whipped through my hometown in Westchester County, New York coming perilously close to my daughter's day care center. I am not specifically sure of the history, but suffice it to say that this had probably never happened before in that area. Saying it is possible to outrun weather patterns is as ridiculous as it is to say we can predict whether or not it will rain two years from today.

That being said, we can protect ourselves. Yet that is the very mechanism that has failed the city of New Orleans, and continues to fail it to this day. The city suffered as a result of Katrina because engineers and our government made mistakes that are now being repeated. The only thing that can be done to reverse this circumstance is to completely re-evaluate the entire levee system. Supposedly that was what was being done. This report only shows that our assumptions in that regard are very wrong.