Truth To Power

America is at that awkward stage: It’s too late to work within the system, but too soon to shoot the bastards: Claire Wolfe

Guess what they filled the levees with?

4 Investigates: Floodwalls stuffed with newspaper?

“It blows my mind.”

Those are the words St. Bernard parish president Craig Taffaro used to watch videotape Eyewitness News showed him, of floodwalls built to protect his parish.

“That should be criminal,” Taffaro continues.

What he’s talking about was witnessed by a St. Bernard Parish resident who didn’t want to be identified, but did have sharp criticism of the work done by a contractor hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“It’s like putting a Band-Aid on the hole of a gas tank of an airplane,” the resident said.

Instead of an airplane, it’s a floodwall, and instead of a Band-Aid, the witness says two years ago, he saw the contractor filling the expansion joint or opening between the floodwalls with newspaper.

“The whole length of the wall was stuffed with newspaper.”

Now, TTP ain’t no engineer, but that don’t sound right.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 5:51 am and is filed under Outrages. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Previously: The danger of Expelled
Next: Is War With Iran Imminent?

One Response to “Guess what they filled the levees with?”

  1. Anthony Sugary Says:
    April 28th, 2008 at 2:44 pm

    Now hold on there, Wyatt…

    It says, “the witness says two years ago, he saw the contractor filling the expansion joint or opening between the floodwalls with newspaper.”

    OK, but that’s a lot different than saying, “The whole length of the wall was stuffed with newspaper.”

    Which is it, hon?

    In fact, if I do say so myself, the linked article is quite thorough and even, dare I say it, truthful. The reference they cite on expansion joints is and has been available freely on the web for years and years, for one thing, secondly, the expansion joints aren’t a problem; they’re a deliberate structural disconnect between wall segments for purposes of preventing cracking; it’s not a structural component of the system per se. However, the material in question looks more like a bond-breaker - which is a common element in an expansion joint. But… there’s something fishy about the missing waterstops. I hope they keep up the investigations. Toodles!

Leave a Reply