… the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers admitted responsibility for
much of the destruction of New Orleans. … As the Corps’ own
inquiry found, the agency committed numerous mistakes of design:
Its network of pumps, walls and levees was “a system in name
only”; it failed to take into account the gradual sinking of the
local soil; it closed its ears when people pointed out these
problems. The result was a national tragedy. …the New Orleans
disaster has illustrated the folly of building flood defenses
for vulnerable low land: Some of the worst-hit areas would not
have been developed in the first place if the Corps hadn’t
decided to build “protections” for them. Encouraging the Army
Corps of Engineers to build Category 5 defenses for all of
Louisiana, including parts that are sparsely populated for good
reason, would not merely cost billions that would be better
spent on defending urban areas. It would encourage settlement of
more flood-prone land and set the stage for the next tragedy.
The engineering that the Corps