18 Missing Inches in New Orleans

Via Avedon, here’s an absolutely infuriating look at how the White House handled the breach of New Orleans’ levees during Katrina. Greg Palast has done some fantastic work on this issue.

Van Heerden: FEMA knew on 11 o’clock on Monday that the levees had breeched. At 2pm they flew over the 17th Street Canal and took video of the breech.

Question: So the White House wouldn’t tell you that the levees had breeched?

Van Heerden: They didn’t tell anybody.

Question: And you’re at the Emergency Center?

Van Heerden: I mean nobody knew. Well, the Corps of Engineers knew. FEMA knew. None of us knew.

The prevarications continued all week.

Van Heerden said, “I went to the Governor’s on Tuesday night and I said this, ‘There’s a lot more breeches than one.’ They said, “Whatever you need, go find out.’ I got in an airplane, I flew. I counted 28 breeches.”

The White House had good reason, or at least political and financial reasons, to keep mum. A hurricane is an act of God, but catastrophic levee failure is an act of the Administration. Once the federal levees go, evacuation, rescue and those frightening words - responsibility and compensation - become Washington’s. Van Heerden knew that “not an act of God, but catastrophic failure of the levee system” would mean that, at least, “these people must be compensated.”

Not every flood victim in America gets the Katrina treatment. In 1992, storms wiped out 190 houses on the beach at West Hampton Dunes, home to film stars and celebrity speculators. The federal government paid to completely rebuild the houses, which, hauled in four million cubic feet of sand to restore the tony beaches, and guaranteed the home’s safety into the coming decades - after which the “victim’s” homes rose in value to an average $2 million each.

But in New Orleans, instead of compensation, 73,000 have been sentenced to life in FEMA’s trailer-parks in Louisiana. Even more are displaced to other states. I asked van Heeerden about the consequences of the White House’s failures, the information about the levee being just one of a list.

“Well, fifteen hundred people drowned. That’s the bottom line.”

Too bad America is bored by this story. Of all the things Dubya has done to screw this country (and today is the 'anniversary' of one of them), this one was the most brutal and direct.