LAKE OKEECHOBEE DIKE ..... HOPE THIS ISN'T ANOTHER HUGE FUCK UP

I read about this awhile back. I don't think Ernesto will be the death of this dike, but nothing is being done to fix this one, as nothing was done to fix the Lake Pontchartrain levees. Why is it that our government spends....and wastes.... billions of dollars on war and military contracts, but they refuse to take care of our own crumbling infrastructure???

By Bill Douthat

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Thursday, June 08, 2006

More than 12,000 residents who live along Lake Okeechobee may be bused to inland shelters during a hurricane evacuation of the western Palm Beach County areas, officials said Wednesday.

A state-hired panel of engineering experts warned in a May report that the dike poses a "grave and imminent danger to the people and the environment of South Florida," but emergency managers, focusing solely on planning, said evacuation orders may be issued under certain conditions if the lake level reaches or exceeds 18 feet above sea level.

More here and here

I watched Face the Nation yesterday morning, and Bob Schieffer had something to say about our government and the recovery process in New Orleans:

(CBS) Weekly commentary by CBS Evening News anchor and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


I love the news, but Friday night it made me sick.

I had talked that afternoon with Dr. Norman Francis, head of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, who told me he thought New Orleans is probably more vulnerable to a hurricane than ever.

Say what you will, New Orleans is still a mess. Officials at all levels are still groping with how to get federal funds to washed out homeowners, how to get FEMA trailers in Arkansas to people who need them, and how to get more schools open. More than half the schools in the city are still closed.

Byron Pitts asked New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin about it on Friday's Evening News. Basically he said "get over it", noting that New York still hasn't covered up what he called "the hole" caused by the 9/11 attack.

Arrogance is galling enough, but it was the next story by Allen Pizzey that really set me off. He reported that Hezbollah agents are on the streets of Southern Lebanon handing out U.S. dollars to people whose homes were bombed out.

One year after Katrina and we can't figure out how to get money to people who lost their homes in New Orleans, we're still not sure if it can survive another hurricane but a terrorist group has figured out how to get American money to the homeless in Lebanon?

Talk about threats to national security – how about government so big, so complicated and so unmanageable, it can't get out of its own way?

That's what scares me.

He also interviewed FEMA director Paulison. They talked about the levees in New Orleans not being any better than they were before Katrina, and Paulison's response was....it doesn't matter. People will be evacuated. My thought was.....how fucking arrogant. It doesn't matter??? You want people to rebuild..... yet you have no concern whether they lose everything again??? You can watch the video of this interview here It's to the left titled Fema After Katrina.

Sorry this is rambling....... but I've got hurricane brain today. Looks like this hurricane may take a drive right up the Florida Turnpike!! The latest update keeps it at a Cat 1.

Question Girl