Hurricane Katrina: A Man-Made Disaster
U.S. actor and writer Harry Shearer has just finished a provocative documentary film “The Big Uneasy” about the impact of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans.
Shearer argues that this was not a natural disaster but a man-made one. To back this up he draws upon evidence that the Army Corps of Engineers not only failed to build adequate levées for the weather conditions that could be expected, but actually created the conditions for massive flooding through its ill-conceived MRGO shipping-canal project.
The proof of the pudding? In 1965 Hurricane Betsy flooded 20% of New Orleans – and created the impetus to build better flood control. Forty years later, after hundreds of millions had been spent on the levées, Hurricane Katrina, which was no more powerful than Betsy, flooded 80% of the city.
Has the Army Corps of Engineers learned from its mistakes? It doesn't seem so. In 2006 whistleblower Maria Garzino, an engineer working on a pump system to move future floodwater away from the city, wrote that the system was insufficient and unsafe because of defective pumps.
Movie trailer (17 minutes)
Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.
Postcript:
Not mentioned in the trailer is the fact that that the company (MWI) that supplied the defective pumps had close ties to Governor Jeb Bush. MWI has run into trouble before. The U.S. Justice Department sued the company in 2002, accusing it of fraudulently helping Nigeria obtain $74 million in taxpayer-backed loans for overpriced and unnecessary water-pump equipment. The case has yet to be resolved.
See article Defective Pumps Used To Protect New Orleans
