The draft of a nine-volume report on the disaster in New Orleans last year prepared by the Army Corps of Engineers and published in the city on June 1 concludes that the system was incomplete, with flaws in the design and construction of the levees.  The report acknowledges that the system would not have protected the city or southeast Louisiana from storms far less severe than Hurricane Katrina.   Independent experts have also criticized the system built by the corps and have described many problems in the design, construction and maintenance of the 350-mile system of levees.  The corps report was the work of 150 experts from government, academia and business, who studied the disaster and offered recommendations for the construction of a stronger system.  The report called for a system of levees and other flood-control mechanisms that would remain standing even when waters flooded over the tops of levees and floodwalls.

What It Means to Agents:  Any national natural catastrophe plan should include the government’s responsibility to build and maintain the proper infrastructure. It would be prudent to include provisions for independent review of the Army Corps of Engineers’ assumptions, methods and performance.

June 7, 2006