New Orleans officials dropped the ball

In the wake of Katrina and all the finger pointing that is going on, here is an interesting email from a structural engineer who worked on the levys. The short version of the story is that the Feds have been trying to fix the levys but the local officials kept diverting the money elsewhere. And it has come out from other sources that the state of Louisianna gets more money for the Army Corps of Engineers than any other state by a large margin. However, almost all of that money gets diverted into pet projects for politicians rather than used to shore up New Orleans.

And then when something bad happens, everyone wants to point fingers at the federal government. Now, I'd be the last person in the world to say that the federal government always does things right. But it seems that they take more than their fair share of criticism when things go wrong and are not given nearly enough credit when things go right.

Let's get a little perspective here people. The US of A is a really big country. And no single government entity can possibly cope with the task of taking care of the entire thing. That's why we have state and local governments that are a little closer to the problems. And they are expected to shoulder their part of the load as well. So, to the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of LA, I respectfully say, 'Shutup'. Quit complaining about how the federal government let you down, admit that you and your state and local governments share a large part of the blame, and get on with helping the people!

To me, that is the biggest tragedy of it all. So many people involved with the disaster are more interested in pointing fingers and diverting blame. There will be a time and place for that. However, the time for that is after the flood waters have cleared and all the people affected have food, water and shelter. Until then, I don't care whose fault it is.