Levee Stability Still Questioned
It’s been more than six years after Hurricane Katrina’s rampage, but experts say authorities have taken only halting steps toward identifying weaknesses in a nationwide patchwork of levees.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was accused of building substandard levees that failed when Katrina swamped the Gulf Coast in 2005.
Since then, the Corps has spent $56 million developing the initial phase of a national levee inventory as required by Congress.
The Corps on Thursday was releasing a database with information about nearly 14,000 miles of levees under its jurisdiction.
But the inventory doesn’t include what is believed to be more than 100,000 additional miles of levees not covered by the Corps’ safety program.
Experts say the government is moving too slowly to complete the inventory.
