http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-na-levees22oct22,1,467201,full.story
THE NATIONSystem Failures Seen in LeveesInvestigators looking into the breaches in New Orleans find problems in design, construction and maintenance of the flood-control barriers.By Ralph Vartabedian and Stephen Braun Times Staff Writers October 22, 2005 The massive failures of levees in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, which flooded the city and caused hundreds of deaths, resulted from flaws at almost every level in the conception, design, construction and maintenance of the region's flood-control system, according to the preliminary findings of investigators. The Army Corps of Engineers, local levee boards in Louisiana and other agencies failed to grasp warning signs over the last decade that the levees were not as strong as expected, reflecting a cultural mind-set that did not pay enough attention to public safety, according to Robert Bea, an engineering professor at UC Berkeley who is part of a National Science Foundation investigating team. The team is one of three high-level technical groups investigating the floods that began Aug. 29. A written preliminary report is to be released next week and then presented to a Senate hearing. Although the investigators' work is far from over, some important points have emerged: At least two, and possibly three, of the breaches that took down storm walls in the city during the hurricane resulted from design flaws involving weak soil conditions, according to Raymond Seed, a UC Berkeley engineering professor who is leading the investigating team. Levees also failed because they were designed and built in the late 1980s and 1990s without adequate safety margins, said Bea, a civil engineering expert. The safety margins, intended to give levees an extra measure of strength, were set far lower than the protective margins typically used for such critical projects as bridges, hospitals and dams. The overall architecture of the city's flood-control system, some of which dates back more than 100 years, has created unnecessary vulnerabilities. The long drainage canals that extend into New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain "are inviting the enemy into the city's backyard," Bea said. The canals should be replaced by underground culverts and pumping stations located on the lake's edge, investigators said. Maintenance practices also were lax. The triggering event in the catastrophic failure of the 17th Street Canal may have been the fall of a large oak tree planted at the base of the levee, investigators said. High winds during the hurricane may have knocked down the tree, causing a large root ball to heave up and undermine the foundation of the levee, according to photographic analysis and eyewitness accounts. The tree's falling started a chain reaction that took out several hundred feet of flood wall. A similar scenario may have played out on the London Avenue Canal. "It was like uncorking a bottle," Bea said. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also is investigating the levee failures, led by Paul Mlakar, a senior research scientist at the corps' engineering research and development center. Mlakar said his team also was examining whether the oak tree triggered the failure. "It is a hypothesis that we are looking at," Mlakar said. Mlakar said he was not ready to release any of his group's early thinking, although he does not take issue with the work done by the National Science Foundation investigators. A third team, organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers, has said little about its work. Other poor maintenance practices were found along miles of other levees, where burrowing animals created large tunnels that undermined already weak foundations. Maintenance and inspection are the responsibility of local levee boards. Levee board officials in New Orleans and neighboring Jefferson Parish insisted Friday that the flood walls in their regions were well-maintained before Katrina struck. And they reacted skeptically to the notion that trees growing near the flood walls might have contributed to the breaches during Katrina's violent storm surges. Orleans Levee District Commissioner Allen H. Borne Jr. said that along the 17th Street levee, maintenance crews kept the barriers and the grounds nearby free of harmful vegetation. "There were no trees on the levees anywhere," Bourne said. He also said he doubted reports that nutria, a species of large rodent, might have undermined the levees by digging trenches beneath them. He acknowledged that the animals had been sighted on occasion near the levees, "but only a few here and there, not in the hundreds." A surge of water estimated at 24 feet about 10 feet higher than at the levees along the city's eastern flank swept into New Orleans from a bay on the Gulf of Mexico, Seed said, and caused most of the flooding in the city. He said that surge from Lake Borgne resulted in the breaches on the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal known in New Orleans as the industrial canal. The industrial canal breaches occurred first, about 9 a.m. on Aug. 29, the day Katrina hit. The second breach occurred at the 17th Street Canal about 4 p.m. The London Avenue levee did not fail until about midnight. The storm surge swept over the top of the industrial canal and eroded its foundation. But the water was more than two feet below the tops of the walls on the 17th Street and London Avenue canals, Seed said. As a result, the loads were well-within the wall's design, he said. "The wall sections were designed to carry water to a higher level than we saw," he said. "The wall should not have failed." Construction defects also may have played a role. Analysis of concrete samples from the 17th Street Canal shows that the levee fractured in ways that suggest the material was substandard. The defects in design and construction might have been offset had the Corps of Engineers used higher safety margins. In basic terms, the walls were weak and unsafe, Bea said. Once it calculated the maximum loads a hurricane could impose on the levees and walls, the corps applied a margin of safety 30% higher than the maximum load, according to guidelines published in 2002 and throughout other Army engineering documents. Such a margin is far below the level engineers typically set for highway bridges, dams, offshore oil platforms and other public structures, Bea said. A more typical approach would have doubled the wall strength over the maximum expected loads. Such a margin of safety is used for two reasons: uncertainly about the loads and the strength of the wall's construction. "This margin of safety was incredibly low," Bea said. Engineering expert Ron Hamburger said most engineers for decades had used a more sophisticated design approach called probabilistic design analysis, a field pioneered in part by Bea. This method tries to estimate the probability of failure over time. Public safety structures now are designed to last an estimated 10,000 years without failure. By contrast, the New Orleans levees may have been designed to withstand 50 to 100 years of natural forces, Bea said. Beyond the immediate causes of the levee failures, Seed said, investigators are finding that the flood protection system in New Orleans is overseen by a tangle of local, state, multi-state and federal organizations that do not work in a coordinated way. Along a single levee in one section of New Orleans, Seed said, investigators have found seven overlapping lines of government and private authority, including road agencies, levee boards, railroads and the Corps of Engineers. Such confusion has led to designs that don't always make sense, he said. "They should rethink the entire flood protection system of New Orleans," Seed said. "It is a real hodgepodge of authority. If there was a coordinated effort, more could be done with less money." In addition to examining the levee breaches, investigators are looking into whether railroad companies failed to shore up gaps in storm walls where tracks pass through. Those gaps are unprotected and are supposed to be plugged with sandbags during a hurricane. Preliminary evidence suggests they were left open, allowing water to pass unobstructed into the 9th Ward. The Army Corps and local officials had warning signs that the levee system had shortcomings. In the case of the soil defects, at least two contractors had warned that the soil conditions were weaker than the corps realized. But the federal officials failed to heed the warning signs, Bea said, citing a culture that has the same flaws that investigators found in NASA after the Columbia space shuttle accident. Bea said the corps had "normalized deviance," meaning the corps had accepted as normal deviations that should have warned of impending disaster. -----Original Message----- From: Lil Joe Sent: Oct 24, 2005 9:01 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Haiti: A proletarian perspective Haiti: A proletarian perspective by Aduku Addae & Lil Joe Shirley Pate declares that solidarity activists "must connect dots that those who wish to join our movement understand, for instance, that the occupation of Palestine, Iraq and Haiti are related." ( http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?sectionID=55&ItemID=8938 ). We concur. We should indeed connect dots. We should be cautioned, however, about the arbitrary distribution of these dots as we venture to connect them. We could end up with an indecipherable maze which leaves us even more confused than before we began the dot-connecting exercise . That would not do us much good. The notion of imperialist aggression as an assault of "first world" industrial nations against weaker "third world" agrarian nations, according to the Leninist-Stalinist teachings, has led the solidarity activist crowd into a dead-end. This conception does not gel with the objective existence of a globally organized capitalist class whose class rule is evident in the very third world nations which solidarity activists align themselves with. The solidarity activists disregard the fact that the "third world" capitalists exploit wage labor same as the "first world" capitalists do. And, most egregiously, they disregard the fact that a revolutionary class, the proletariat, exists in these "third world" countries. The old anti-imperialist formula cannot make sense of the fact that the occupying MINUSTAH force is made up of "third world" countries including Agentina, Brazil, Canada, Bolivia, chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, Jordan, China, Philippines and Uruguay. It cannot do so because its political economic analysis is leaky. The battle in Haiti is between social classes, namely between the "Comprador" bourgeoisie aligned openly with the bourgeoisie of France, USA, Canada, Brazil, China, Chile, Jordan, Philippines, etc, represented by Gerard Latortue and the UN, on the one hand, and the Haitian nationalist including the peasants and the âcountry squiresâ (large(er) land owners) and the misguided proletarian elements of Cite Soleil and Bel Air under the umbrella of Lavalas, on the opposing hand. All these are fighting for the productive forces. As the struggle develops the antagonisms between class factions intensify and create fissures in the various âunited frontâ affiliations. These fissures are reflected in the fragmentation of the Lavalas movement in Haiti and in the fractious squabbles taking place in and between solidarity movements abroad. ( See Pierre Beaudetâs "Haiti, the struggle continues", Marguerite Laurentâs "The White âsaviorsâ of Haiti vs. Haitian self-determination and actualization" and Charles Demers & Derrrick oâKeefeâs "Haiti: Getting the facts right" ). All over the globe the class divisions inherent in the struggle now taking place in Haiti are coming to the fore. It is now becoming clear to perceptive observers that the conflict in Haiti is essentially a battle between the global capitalist class and the Haitian proletariat. (Those heroic workers domiciled in Cite Soleil and Bel Air are on the front-lines of this battle.) And what is true of Haiti, by Shirley Pateâs very proposition, is true, also, of Palestine and Iraq. It must be noted, regrettably, that whilst the Haitian proletariat is fighting this class war against the international (global) capitalist class neither the Haitian working class nor the solidarity activists abroad have internalized this fact. Thus, instead of fighting for their own class-defined objectives, the proletarian partisans of Cite Soleil are fighting for the return of "democracy" (whatever that is) and for the return of the cowardly ex-priest, and supposed political savior of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The solidarity activists fall right in step championing these objectives as the âworthy causeâ. Pate speaks of betrayal. It is the cause of the proletariat has been indisputably âbetrayedâ in Haiti! The discourse on Haiti runs to sterility when no attempt is made to square the facts of Aristideâs conduct with his purported role as Haitiâs savior. What is to be made of Aristideâs employment of the mercenaries from the Steel Foundation ( the same Steel Foundation that supplies mercenaries to the pentagon for itâs Iraq enterprise!) as his palace guards? What is to be made of Aristideâs stealthy move to situate Industrial Free Zones (IFZs) in the fertile Maribaroux area. (See "Kowtowing to the Multinationals" â http://www.alternatives.ca/articles249.html ). What is to be made of this revelation by Rep. Major Owens that: " CBC members begged specifically for the protection of President Aristide and his family.[...] The troika of Rice, Powell, and Bush has responded by saving Aristide from assassination. The kidnaping was a concession to the CBC ." (See the full article here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-major-r-owens/the-revenge-of-napoleon_b_5578.html , or, do a keyword search "The Revenge of Napoleon." ) Note that Rep. Owens is a NEGRO. >From the foregoing it seems that the administration in Washington had a vested >interest in treating Aristide with kidâs gloves. Such treatment is >inconsistent with the customary treatment of âthird world anti-imperialist >leadersâ including Patrice Lumumba, Jacobo Arbenz , Steve Biko, Ernesto >Guevara, Mohammad Mossadeqh, Salvador Allende and Walter Rodney. This should >have caused some questions to be raised about the real role of Aristide in the >latest episode of the unfolding historical drama in Haiti. But no! The >solidarity activists keep right on talking about a February 29 coup dâetat. >What a penchant they have for fiction! Now, if Aristideâs role is to be questioned so too must that of his USA champions, the CBC. The role of the CBC in the invasion of Iraq renders it suspect automatically. Moreover the consistent betrayal of the black people, which this group claims to represent in the USA, in favor of the US Democratic party and, therefore, in favor of the Capitalist class in the USA (who are, incidentally, âwhite folkâ), disqualifies the CBC from speaking on the behalf of the Haitian toilers who are now under attack from the US and the Global Capitalist class. The true color of the CBC is revealed in its praise for P. J. Patterson of Jamaica on the occasion of the announcement that he is the 2005 recipient of the organizationâs âprestigiousâ Diggs Award. Pattersonâs three-term PNP administration has ruined the Jamaican economy causing unprecedented impoverishment of Jamaicaâs predominantly black population ( Approximately 90% black). This administration has also presided over the decimation of the Jamaican population to the tune of over 10,000 dead at a rate of 1000 per annum. Yet the CBC would say of him that "members of the Black Caucus felt that his [Pattersonâs] record of achievement was representative of all that embodies the goals of the caucus." http://www.jamaica-gleaner/gleaner/20050923/nes/news2.html . Thus the CBC reveals its true mission - the decimation and impoverishment of the very black population it claims to represent. Historically the enemies of black people in Jamaica have not been the friends of black people in Haiti and the CBC has shown itself to be the enemies of black people in Jamaica by publicly embracing Patterson as the very embodiment of the organizationâs goals. The historical and current experiences of Haiti and Jamaica have served to resolved the mis-apprehensions articulated in the supposed need for a racial struggle (a struggle against racism). The Black politicians of Jamaica are returning black Haitians to their strife-torn country. See "Haitians on the run" â http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20051013/lead/lead3.html ). These black men in Jamaica are as cold-hearted about returning Haitians to Haiti as are the white politicians in the USA. The black politicians have more in common with their white counterparts in the USA than they do with the black refuge-seekers of Haiti. And in Haiti the black capitalists have more in common with the American, Canadian and French (white) invaders than they do with fellow (black) Haitians who reside in the slums of Cite Soleil and Bel Air. Class interests trumps all racial considerations as far as the (global) class rule of the capitalists go. Black and white, the capitalists unite. The working classes need to learn from this and reject the fictitious imperative propounded by the âsolidarity activistsâ concerning a struggle against racism. The anti-racism struggle is a pointless diversion. The real imperative is global class war. This is the real imperative because it is the historical imperative. Solidarity activist need to battle their respective national bourgeoisie and stop feeding their egos at the expense of the citizens of Cite Soleil and Bel Air, who are actually fighting a class battle (literally a shooting war!) against the Haitian and international (global) capitalist class. To emphasize the foregoing, if the solidarity activists really want to help the Haitian partisans, then these activists must join the class battle against the bourgeoisie of their own country. The Haitians have proven over and over again (for 217 years) that they are equal to the task in Haiti. Let the solidarity activist prove themselves equal to the task in the USA, Brazil, France, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Cuba, Russia, Grenada, Barbados, Syria, Iran, N. Korea, S. Korea, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Canada, China, Japan, Jordan, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad, Guyana, etc, etc. In a word, solidarity activists need to "put up, or, shut up!" â End â Lil Joe Lil Joe Lil Joe Lil Joe _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
