Here are some New Orleans webcams

[kandrathe]

But things need to change, and that asks for some political backbiting.....altough I agree that they should wait a little while with that. As I see it more taxes is the only way to go.
(what do you actually pay in %)
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One huge problem is that Louisiana, and New Orleans in particular, are one of the most impoverished area's of the nation and unable to self fund their own projects. Our Federal/State/Local organization puts States in adversarial competition for Federal grants and projects (typically called Pork). In a way we are all to blame for sending our State delegations to DC and applauding them for the PORK they have brought back to our local economies. Now, as it turns out, at the expense of lives, livlihoods, and property in New Orleans.

Look at Louisiana's own misplaced 2005 Federal Pork priorities;

$43,813,000 for projects in the state of Senate appropriator Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and the district of House appropriator David Vitter (R-La.), including: $11,450,000 for the J. Bennett Johnston Waterway ($9,000,000 for construction and $2,450,000 for operation and maintenance. A January 9, 2000 Washington Post article stated that the waterway "still carries less than 0.1 percent of the commercial traffic on America's government-run river transport system — even though it receives a remarkable 3.4 percent of the system's federal funds." In 2003, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the $2 billion worth of construction costs won’t be justified until 2046); $2,000,000 for a sugar-based ethanol biorefinery at Louisiana State University; and $500,000 for Livingston Parish alternative fuel plant construction

Allow me to shed a little light on some specifics about the Levee project.

Work is about 90 percent complete in the Chalmette area and includes an additional levee lift and floodwall capping. Work in Orleans Parish is about 90 percent complete. The major remaining construction is the parallel protection along the London Avenue and Orleans Avenue canals. Completion of this work is scheduled by 2010. Jefferson Parish work is 70 percent complete. The remaining work in Jefferson consists of at least two more lakefront levee enlargements, and a flood proofed bridge at Hammond Highway over the 17th Street Canal. Completion is scheduled by 2010. The work in St. Charles Parish is 60 percent complete, and the protection system is not yet closed. Closure of the last two gaps should be completed by September 2005. Overall project completion is scheduled for 2015.

From: Lake Pontchartrain LA. and Vicinity Hurricane Protection Project,St. Bernard, Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Charles Parishes, LA

Certainly underfunding this project was a mistake in hindsight, not only for the current cadre in DC but extending back to the projects inception during the Carter era. This was a calculated risk betting that nature could not hit the headpin, and she did. In a hindsight 20/20 world we would have been suspecting that something was up with Atta and his friends and stopped 9/11, and we would have fully evacuated NO on Friday rather than calling for it on Sunday, just hours before the storm.

Looking at the projects in place, even had the improvements above been completed, this project was only a refurbishment to insure the levee would withstand a direct hit from a category 3 hurricane.
Is Bush to Blame for New Orleans Flooding?