My memories of Katrina 10 years ago

TEOTWAWKI wrote:

Vikingwoman wrote:

TEOTWAWKI wrote:

Vikingwoman wrote:

SheWrites wrote:

Vikingwoman wrote:

TEOTWAWKI wrote:

Vikingwoman wrote:

SheWrites wrote:You know, I'd ask permission to write his life story but I'd never give it justice.  He needs to write it.  Only Seaoat can bring the depth, the emotion, the epic drama of Seaoat.

In awe...

What a bitch you are? You probably never even came close in your "christian" life of ever doing anything like that.

now that wasn't nice....say you're sorry...

I didn't intend it to be nice just a she didn't intend it to be nice.

I think Seaoat understands my friendly jabs.  We have bantered over his stories.  I have full respect for his abilities.  

If I appear to "not be nice" to Seaoat, I do apologize to him.  I think he is a big enough man to tell me himself if I'm a pain in the ass.  Being a pain is not my intent.   All in good fun.

No drama needed.  Peace be with you.

Naw, you were being snarky and condescending. Some people think that is good fun but there is an underlying sentiment there. You should know if you post on a public board all is fair game. Oatie would never say it bothered him. That would be unmanly and weak.

Thank you Dr. Dreams.....

Your welcome! I can spot a snark a hundred miles away.

Takes one to know one....

Yeah, well, you only come out from under your rock,Teo when it's one on your side. You don't practice equal opportunity offensiveness so your disdain is not noted.

2seaoat wrote:Their levee system was horribly managed for efficiency but excellently for graft and corruption.

Sorry, you do realize that the army corp had jurisdiction over the levee system....not the corrupt local and state politicians.  You do know if that levee system had not failed probably nobody would have died.

I was working with Rock Island Branch of the Army Corps of engineers on a bridge when Katrina happened.  The canal which was in their jurisdiction collapsed about five hundred yards of steel reinforced concrete.  Poor design....poor construction.....All Army Corps of Engineers.  How does this brain trust try to stop the water helicopters and trucks dropping rock into a six hundred foot wide river.  Idiots.   I immediately called Rock Island and spoke with the engineers on my project.  I simply said why are these idiots trying to close a gap of 600 feet when they can position two barges with an excavator and drive steel pilings at each end of the F'ing canal which is 66 feet wide and has good sides to close it off.   They agreed.  Two days later they closed both ends of the canal with excavators, barges and steel pilings.   You can blame the corrupt politicians all you want, but people died in NO because of stupidity in the Army Corps of Engineers, and that canal could have been closed in the first 24 hours and the depth of the flood in the city could have been reduced greatly saving lives.  This was not politics.....this was pisz poor engineering and lack of common sense in response to the disaster.  People should have been criminally charged......but as usual the Army Corp murdered people and got no heat or culpability....Now I suppose that my superman outfit will not fit, or as She says my Walter Mitty internet existence continues.....but it happened, and I made the call.  I might add my bridge got approved with no problems after the call.....

I can see where you derive great pleasure in your own existence but I can also see you and Trump are kindred spirits.

I want to apologize to seaoat. All he did was say hurricane forecasting is no better than donkeys throwing darts. Not monkeys throwing darts.

Looks like those donkeys are throwing darts again.  

Salinsky wrote:

I called this one with my first post in Bob's "birdseed" thread.

It shoulda ended right there, and I coulda saved a lot of wear and tear on my mouse's scroll wheel.

Would you please call this new one (Tropical Storm Fred) for us.  That way we can forego with the donkeys and monkeys and all that worthless forecasting shit and go straight to the horse's mouth.

I can see where you derive great pleasure in your own existence but I can also see you and Trump are kindred spirits.

I told my wife that I would be considered a nut case talking about my calls to the Army Corps of Engineers......she laughed......all true, and she witnessed the whole Army Corps of Engineers thing with me recovering from Gall Bladder surgery throwing things at the TV when they were trying to close the gap with bomber truckloads of big rock....I have put 2k pound concrete blocks in the river to dam a branch of the river on the islands and the water easily moves the 2k pounds, yet these idiot were trying to fill the breach.....impossible until there was near equalization. You had to attack the smallest opening where there was stability. The engineers in Rock Island agreed with the barges, excavators, and steel sheathings. Almost every bridge abutment in America which goes over water uses a hydraulic hammer on an excavator to hammer the steel down twenty to thirty feet and provides a strong and waterproof stop. The best part with alluvial soils is that it is quick. They had the water stopped in less than 24 hours. My point is that folks want to blame politicians, but the hurricane really hit Mississippi directly and what happened in NO was an Army Corps of Engineers failure. Their response was slow and dimwitted.......but nobody believes I made these phone calls, and I am like Donald Trump.....yep....sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.

Vikingwoman wrote:

TEOTWAWKI wrote:

Vikingwoman wrote:

TEOTWAWKI wrote:

Vikingwoman wrote:

SheWrites wrote:

Vikingwoman wrote:

TEOTWAWKI wrote:

Vikingwoman wrote:

SheWrites wrote:You know, I'd ask permission to write his life story but I'd never give it justice.  He needs to write it.  Only Seaoat can bring the depth, the emotion, the epic drama of Seaoat.

In awe...

What a bitch you are? You probably never even came close in your "christian" life of ever doing anything like that.

now that wasn't nice....say you're sorry...

I didn't intend it to be nice just a she didn't intend it to be nice.

I think Seaoat understands my friendly jabs.  We have bantered over his stories.  I have full respect for his abilities.  

If I appear to "not be nice" to Seaoat, I do apologize to him.  I think he is a big enough man to tell me himself if I'm a pain in the ass.  Being a pain is not my intent.   All in good fun.

No drama needed.  Peace be with you.

Naw, you were being snarky and condescending. Some people think that is good fun but there is an underlying sentiment there. You should know if you post on a public board all is fair game. Oatie would never say it bothered him. That would be unmanly and weak.

Thank you Dr. Dreams.....

Your welcome! I can spot a snark a hundred miles away.

Takes one to know one....

Yeah, well, you only come out from under your rock,Teo when it's one on your side. You don't practice equal opportunity offensiveness so your disdain is not noted.

Aw come on, you know you love being snarky. Don't get all upset. I mean it takes all kinds, I get pretty snarky myself sometimes. Look dreams I am only human unlike seaoat the magnificent. If he didn't have cancer I might really believe he was from Krypton. Okay back under my rock......

I am only human unlike seaoat the magnificent.

Finally we can agree on something.

Seaoat, Bush cut funding to the Corps of Engineers to pay for the tax cuts and the war in Iraq. The budget was bare bones, which had been reported numerous times by the NO Times-Picayune. In addition, 1/3 of Louisiana National Guard were serving in Iraq.

http://www.alternet.org/story/24871/why_the_levee_broke

Even though Hurricane Katrina has moved well north of the city, the waters continued to rise in New Orleans on Wednesday. That's because Lake Pontchartrain continues to pour through a two-block-long break in the main levee, near the city's 17th Street Canal. With much of the Crescent City some 10 feet below sea level, the rising tide may not stop until until it's level with the massive lake.

There have been numerous reports of bodies floating in the poorest neighborhoods of this poverty-plagued city, but the truth is that the death toll may not be known for days, because the conditions continue to frustrate rescue efforts.

New Orleans had long known it was highly vulnerable to flooding and a direct hit from a hurricane. In fact, the federal government has been working with state and local officials in the region since the late 1960s on major hurricane and flood relief efforts. When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA.

Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.

Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars.

Newhouse News Service, in an article posted late Tuesday night at The Times-Picayune Web site, reported: "No one can say they didn't see it coming. ... Now in the wake of one of the worst storms ever, serious questions are being asked about the lack of preparation."

In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain, according to this Feb. 16, 2004, article, in New Orleans CityBusiness:
The $750 million Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection project is another major Corps project, which remains about 20% incomplete due to lack of funds, said Al Naomi, project manager. That project consists of building up levees and protection for pumping stations on the east bank of the Mississippi River in Orleans, St. Bernard, St. Charles and Jefferson parishes.
The Lake Pontchartrain project is slated to receive $3.9 million in the president's 2005 budget. Naomi said about $20 million is needed.
"The longer we wait without funding, the more we sink," he said. "I've got at least six levee construction contracts that need to be done to raise the levee protection back to where it should be (because of settling). Right now I owe my contractors about $5 million. And we're going to have to pay them interest."
On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, told the Times-Picayune: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."

That June, with the 2004 hurricane seasion starting, the Corps' Naomi went before a local agency, the East Jefferson Levee Authority, and essentially begged for $2 million for urgent work that Washington was now unable to pay for. From the June 18, 2004 Times-Picayune:
"The system is in great shape, but the levees are sinking. Everything is sinking, and if we don't get the money fast enough to raise them, then we can't stay ahead of the settlement," he said. "The problem that we have isn't that the levee is low, but that the federal funds have dried up so that we can't raise them."
The panel authorized that money, and on July 1, 2004, it had to pony up another $250,000 when it learned that stretches of the levee in Metairie had sunk by four feet. The agency had to pay for the work with higher property taxes. The levee board noted in October 2004 that the feds were also now not paying for a hoped-for $15 million project to better shore up the banks of Lake Pontchartrain.

The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane- and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history. Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office there imposed a hiring freeze. Officials said that money targeted for the SELA project -- $10.4 million, down from $36.5 million -- was not enough to start any new jobs. According to New Orleans CityBusiness this June 5:
The district has identified $35 million in projects to build and improve levees, floodwalls and pumping stations in St. Bernard, Orleans, Jefferson and St. Charles parishes. Those projects are included in a Corps line item called Lake Pontchartrain, where funding is scheduled to be cut from $5.7 million this year to $2.9 million in 2006. Naomi said it's enough to pay salaries but little else.
"We'll do some design work. We'll design the contracts and get them ready to go if we get the money. But we don't have the money to put the work in the field, and that's the problem," Naomi said.
There was, at the same time, a growing recognition that more research was needed to see what New Orleans must do to protect itself from a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. But once again, the money was not there. As the Times-Picayune reported last Sept. 22:
That second study would take about four years to complete and would cost about $4 million, said Army Corps of Engineers project manager Al Naomi. About $300,000 in federal money was proposed for the 2005 fiscal-year budget, and the state had agreed to match that amount.
But the cost of the Iraq war forced the Bush administration to order the New Orleans district office not to begin any new studies, and the 2005 budget no longer includes the needed money, he said.
The Senate was seeking to restore some of the SELA funding cuts for 2006. But now it's too late. One project that a contractor had been racing to finish this summer was a bridge and levee job right at the 17th Street Canal, site of the main breach on Monday. The levee failure appears to be causing a human tragedy of epic proportions: "We probably have 80 percent of our city under water; with some sections of our city the water is as deep as 20 feet. Both airports are underwater," Mayor Ray Nagin told a radio interviewer.

The Newhouse News Service article published Tuesday night observed, "The Louisiana congressional delegation urged Congress earlier this year to dedicate a stream of federal money to Louisiana's coast, only to be opposed by the White House. ... In its budget, the Bush administration proposed a significant reduction in funding for southeast Louisiana's chief hurricane protection project. Bush proposed $10.4 million, a sixth of what local officials say they need."

Washington knew that this day could come at any time, and it knew the things that needed to be done to protect the citizens of New Orleans. But in the tradition of the riverboat gambler, the Bush administration decided to roll the dice on its fool's errand in Iraq, and on a tax cut that mainly benefitted the rich. Now Bush has lost that gamble, big time.

The president told us that we needed to fight in Iraq to save lives here at home. Yet -- after moving billions of domestic dollars to the Persian Gulf -- there are bodies floating through the streets of Louisiana. What does George W. Bush have to say for himself now?

***************

Here's an account of Bush's actions before and after the storm.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/reporters-notebook-george-w-bush-and-the-week-hurricane-katrina-hit/

He had also put FEMA under the umbrella of Homeland Security, and apparently neither Chertoff nor Brown took the situation seriously. Several days passed before the first aid to the region materialized. Bush was in Arizona, pushing the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan and wishing McCain a happy birthday. Local and state response aside, the federal response was beyond pathetic, as was the flyover by Bush days later.

Floridatexan wrote:
Here's an account of Bush's actions before and after the storm.  

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/reporters-notebook-george-w-bush-and-the-week-hurricane-katrina-hit/

He had also put FEMA under the umbrella of Homeland Security, and apparently neither Chertoff nor Brown took the situation seriously.  Several days passed before the first aid to the region materialized.  Bush was in Arizona, pushing the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan and wishing McCain a happy birthday.  Local and state response aside, the federal response was beyond pathetic, as was the flyover by Bush days later.  

Can you give an accurate account of the actions of former mayor Nagin and Blanco prior to the storm and immediately after?

What blame are they responsible for in regard to failure to declare an early evacuation for a city with a huge majority of citizens that depend solely on public transportation?

Being that we're in hurricane alley, people who live in a bathtub below sea level are facing the same thing people who live on the beach on a barrier island have to face.

I'm not sure even the greatest and most beloved politicians in the world could stop the storm surge. And that includes both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.

TEOTWAWKI wrote:

Vikingwoman wrote:

TEOTWAWKI wrote:

Vikingwoman wrote:

TEOTWAWKI wrote:

Vikingwoman wrote:

SheWrites wrote:

Vikingwoman wrote:

TEOTWAWKI wrote:

Vikingwoman wrote:

SheWrites wrote:You know, I'd ask permission to write his life story but I'd never give it justice.  He needs to write it.  Only Seaoat can bring the depth, the emotion, the epic drama of Seaoat.

In awe...

What a bitch you are? You probably never even came close in your "christian" life of ever doing anything like that.

now that wasn't nice....say you're sorry...

I didn't intend it to be nice just a she didn't intend it to be nice.

I think Seaoat understands my friendly jabs.  We have bantered over his stories.  I have full respect for his abilities.  

If I appear to "not be nice" to Seaoat, I do apologize to him.  I think he is a big enough man to tell me himself if I'm a pain in the ass.  Being a pain is not my intent.   All in good fun.

No drama needed.  Peace be with you.

Naw, you were being snarky and condescending. Some people think that is good fun but there is an underlying sentiment there. You should know if you post on a public board all is fair game. Oatie would never say it bothered him. That would be unmanly and weak.

Thank you Dr. Dreams.....

Your welcome! I can spot a snark a hundred miles away.

Takes one to know one....

Yeah, well, you only come out from under your rock,Teo when it's one on your side. You don't practice equal opportunity offensiveness so your disdain is not noted.

Aw come on, you know you love being snarky. Don't get all upset. I mean it takes all kinds, I get pretty snarky myself sometimes. Look dreams I am only human unlike seaoat the magnificent. If he didn't have cancer I might really believe he was from Krypton. Okay back under my rock......

LOL! You have to understand Oatie is trying to convince himself while he is educating others about his greatness. I had a friend like that once. Everywhere we went and every time I talked to her on the phone she was always bragging about her money,how great she was and how great her family was. She took being positive to extreme self adulation that was uncomfortable to be around. She even gave a few seminars on self esteem that was all about her and read poems she had written. She was never asked back and she couldn't understand why. The point is people like that need the constant affirmations of their greatness because they themselves don't really believe it. They don't have that inner confidence.

2seaoat wrote: You did not know what a managing broker was......try to disguise your lack of knowledge any way you want, and I could have exposed that lack of knowledge many times when you talk about real estate.....we both know I have been kind.

Why would I? The legal classification of managing broker does not exist in Florida. Perhaps it does in your state...or your state of mind.

Why does being wrong about Florida anger you so much?

2seaoat wrote:Their levee system was horribly managed for efficiency but excellently for graft and corruption.

Sorry, you do realize that the army corp had jurisdiction over the levee system....not the corrupt local and state politicians.  You do know if that levee system had not failed probably nobody would have died.

I was working with Rock Island Branch of the Army Corps of engineers on a bridge when Katrina happened.  The canal which was in their jurisdiction collapsed about five hundred yards of steel reinforced concrete.  Poor design....poor construction.....All Army Corps of Engineers.  How does this brain trust try to stop the water helicopters and trucks dropping rock into a six hundred foot wide river.  Idiots.   I immediately called Rock Island and spoke with the engineers on my project.  I simply said why are these idiots trying to close a gap of 600 feet when they can position two barges with an excavator and drive steel pilings at each end of the F'ing canal which is 66 feet wide and has good sides to close it off.   They agreed.  Two days later they closed both ends of the canal with excavators, barges and steel pilings.   You can blame the corrupt politicians all you want, but people died in NO because of stupidity in the Army Corps of Engineers, and that canal could have been closed in the first 24 hours and the depth of the flood in the city could have been reduced greatly saving lives.  This was not politics.....this was pisz poor engineering and lack of common sense in response to the disaster.  People should have been criminally charged......but as usual the Army Corp murdered people and got no heat or culpability....Now I suppose that my superman outfit will not fit, or as She says my Walter Mitty internet existence continues.....but it happened, and I made the call.  I might add my bridge got approved with no problems after the call.....

My sympathies to you and yours.

Governmental reform[edit]

After Katrina and the levee failures, the O.L.B. was vilified. The immediate prevailing position was that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal sponsor, had been “forced to partner” with local politically-appointed officials who had no engineering experience and who were not engaged in the important business of flood protection. There were calls for the elimination of the Orleans Levee Board and other local and regional boards.

During a special session of the Louisiana Legislature, a bill submitted by Sen. Walter Boasso (D-Arabi) was passed into law, which consolidated the levee boards of various parishes within Greater New Orleans. The law created two new regional levee boards, Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East and Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-West, separated by the Mississippi River. The Orleans Levee Board ceased to exist on January 1, 2007. The new regional flood-protection authorities assumed control of the Board's flood-protection infrastructure.

Lakefront Airport, the marinas (except for the city-owned Municipal Yacht Harbor), Lakeshore Drive, and the lakefront park system (except for West End Park, administered by New Orleans' Parks and Parkways Department) are now operated and maintained by the Louisiana State Division of Administration Non-Flood Protection Asset Management Authority.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orleans_Levee_Board

Why would I? The legal classification of managing broker does not exist in Florida. Perhaps it does in your state...or your state of mind.

Why does being wrong about Florida anger you so much?


I know you are slipping a little bit, but you are now blatantly lying. You clearly said that there was no such thing as a managing broker. You qualified your statement with two sentences, before you basically called me a liar because you lacked Real Estate knowledge that Managing brokers do exist. You did not qualify in these sentences to the state of Florida. You have tried after this to make your statement about Florida, but that is not what you said.....let me remind you of what you said:

Fair Housing Law. Simple, you agreed to comply with that requirement when you applied for, passed the courses and obtained a real estate license.

Also, there is no such thing as a managing brokers license.

You showed your asz Mr. Markle, and rather than saying I made a mistake and was unaware of managing brokers.....you were ignorant and now not very truthful trying to cover up for your lack of knowledge. Your words stand.

Inept New Orleans Officials

OCTOBER 18, 2005

Could it be that corrupt and inept city officials contributed greatly to all the deaths and injuries caused by Hurricane Katrina? According to a former president of the New Orleans City Council and former Orleans Levee Board member that is exactly the case.

Peggy Wilson, a New Orleans city councilwoman from 1986 through 1998 and later a governor-appointed Orleans Levee Board member, has given a candid account this week on what the mainstream media has failed to say regarding the big storm’s devastating effect.

Wilson said that the levee board was well-funded but the money was not spent on levee maintenance and improvements like it should have. Rather, the board focused on widening bridges and making other accommodations for riverboat casinos, which not surprisingly, are a major source of the levee board’s funding.

She also said that some board members, including the chairman of the board, had personal relationships with companies that were contracted to perform unnecessary services for the board.

As for the most inept official, Wilson believes that title belongs to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who she says is not corrupt but rather “he didn’t know anything about city government or how to run a city?.Its just the most unbelievable ineptness.”

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2005/10/inept-new-orleans-officials/

2seaoat wrote:Why would I? The legal classification of managing broker does not exist in Florida. Perhaps it does in your state...or your state of mind.

Why does being wrong about Florida anger you so much?


I know you are slipping a little bit, but you are now blatantly lying.  You clearly said that there was no such thing as a managing broker.  You qualified your statement with two sentences, before you basically called me a liar because you lacked Real Estate knowledge that Managing brokers do exist.  You did not qualify in these sentences to the state of Florida.  You have tried after this to make your statement about Florida, but that is not what you said.....let me remind you of what you said:

Fair Housing Law.  Simple, you agreed to comply with that requirement when you applied for, passed the courses and obtained a real estate license.

Also, there is no such thing as a managing brokers license.

You showed your asz Mr. Markle, and rather than saying I made a mistake and was unaware of managing brokers.....you were ignorant and now not very truthful trying to cover up for your lack of knowledge.  Your words stand.

I'm sorry, I thought you WERE bright enough to know that when I refer to real estate license law, I am not referring to the 49 different states with 49 different real estate license laws.

Keep up the good work. My work here is done.

Nice try. The jurisdiction over the levees and protection of NO is with the Army Corps of Engineers. The design, inspection, and construction of the levees are the jurisdiction of the Army Corps of engineers and their jurisdiction supersedes state and local governments and ALL PROJECTS MUST BE APPROVED AND PERMITTED BY THE ACE.

When a state or local government starts any project in the Navigable waters of the United States the Army Corps controls....duh.

I'm sorry, I thought you WERE bright enough to know that when I refer to real estate license law, I am not referring to the 49 different states with 49 different real estate license laws.

Keep up the good work. My work here is done

I told you I had a managing broker license. You said there was no such thing as a managing broker license. You do not know what you are talking about in real estate.

2seaoat wrote:I'm sorry, I thought you WERE bright enough to know that when I refer to real estate license law, I am not referring to the 49 different states with 49 different real estate license laws.

Keep up the good work. My work here is done

I told you I had a managing broker license.  You said there was no such thing as a managing broker license.  You do not know what you are talking about in real estate.

In Florida. In what state do you have a "Managing Broker License"?

Oh, what was it you wanted to know about Fair Housing Law?  I have taught that around the country for the National Association of Realtors.

Oh, what was it you wanted to know about Fair Housing Law? I have taught that around the country for the National Association of Realtors.


Now that is ironic in so many ways. All over the country you say, and you did not know what a managing broker was......the sweetest irony is you talking about fair housing law......I will giggle myself to sleep tonight.

Floridatexan wrote:
Here's an account of Bush's actions before and after the storm.  

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/reporters-notebook-george-w-bush-and-the-week-hurricane-katrina-hit/

He had also put FEMA under the umbrella of Homeland Security, and apparently neither Chertoff nor Brown took the situation seriously.  Several days passed before the first aid to the region materialized.  Bush was in Arizona, pushing the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan and wishing McCain a happy birthday.  Local and state response aside, the federal response was beyond pathetic, as was the flyover by Bush days later.  

Hey, let's be honest here. Blanco was the cause of the lack of federal response. She refused it.

Blanco was the cause of the lack of federal response. She refused it.



Her inaction killed people, but this was entirely the fault of the Army Corps of Engineers because without the failure in design and construction of the levees few would have died.