ARE YOU KIDDING ME!

Levee slumps by more than 6ft.;
repairs to take weeks

Weak soil discovered in rebuilt Buras section
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
By Mark Schleifstein
Staff writer

With hurricane season only three days away, the Army Corps of Engineers on Monday announced that a 400-foot section of earthen hurricane protection levee being rebuilt near Buras High School in Plaquemines Parish slumped by more than 6 feet overnight Saturday, and repairs could take three to six weeks.

Chris Rose

Question: Why isn't the Corps falling all over itself in a prostrate mea culpa about its criminal failure and its concomitant destruction of our city and needless and horribly gruesome death of our people? Why aren't there flowers on our doorsteps every day from these people?

Answer: There is no accountability in public life and government by the rich people for the rich people. None. Next question.

I ask you: Why aren't they as angry as the rest of us? Why aren't they pounding their fists and telling Chris Matthews Tuesday night that asking why New Orleans should be saved is the stupidest question he's ever asked and that's saying a lot.

Answer: Most countries have a city at the mouth of their largest rivers. In the old days it was called defense protection and now it's called commerce. No New Orleans no gas, wheat, chemicals or textiles.

Next question, Mr. Matthews, you sullen blowhard.

Man, I've got a headache.

You know, if you look at the flood protection the Dutch built for their below-sea level population (Why do they live there? Isn't that crazy?), it looks like a profoundly high-tech, super-engineered fortress of space age metals and design that could save a planet, not just some stupid little island full of tulips and cheese.

You look at what the Corps has going on around our town and you see what? Mounds of dirt and sheet metal.

Feel safe?

The Japanese have a flood system in place that's designed for a 1,000-year storm and leaders there worry that it's not enough.

Us? We're hoping the big storms hit Texas this year so we can make it to November.

That's sound policy: Burn lucky candles. Try a Novena. Lotto good that will do.

. . . . . . .

Columnist Chris Rose can be reached at chris.rose@timespicayune.com; or at (504) 352-2535 or (504) 826-3309. To read past columns, visit www.nola.com/rose.

Got Crabs?

the people that stayed behind always get asked what it was like. they share the experience in pieces. as you talk with them, you get a greater sense of the whole puzzle... what was said, what was unsaid.

i have now heard a number of stories about people who had friends or family that had an armed confrontation with someone and the event resulted in death of the offender. these stories range from national guardsmen who killed an attacking offender, to those that went back early to check on their homes and encountered an intruder.

recently, i was talking with a friend about our first time back in nola. bonn and i had a pass saying we were with the federal governement. we told the story of how we went in "dressed up" with a nice shirt, jeans, our glasses on, and as we passed the checkpoint, i was in the passenger seat with my laptop open, my treo out, and earbud in. we looked like fbi. when we initially thinking about coming back (the week the storm hit), we were scared about the possibility of our home having intruders. since 80% of the city was under water, it only made sense people would be invading homes that were unoccupied and on high ground. i remember going to a sporting goods store and inquiring if they had handguns for sale. the clerk told me they only had plenty of guns available and he wanted to know what i was hunting. i told him i was from new orleans. the words hung in the room.

several friends have told us about an encounter with death. all of the cases i have heard about resulted in the death of a intruder. one case was an intruder who was trying to car jack and pry my friends father from their car and the intruder was shot. another intruder had broken into an available home and tried to attack the home owner. the home owner shot and killed them. the horrified home owner ran outside to flag down a national guard patrol. the patrol told them to "drag the body outside and leave it." i have heard a number of stories about the encounters of the national guard in new orleans. what happened to all of the bodies? the people that defended themselves, are they able to sleep at night?

there have been many rumors about what happened to all of the bodies. most of them involve the bodies being dumped in the river. are the rumors true? I don't know but many people in new orleans wouldn't eat the crabs this fall. they were concerned the crabs had been feasting on the dead bodies.