Two years ago, 122 levees ID'ed as unsafe, unreliable-only 45 have been fixed

[babylonsister]

Most levee repairs lagging

By Peter Eisler, USA TODAY


WASHINGTON — Communities nationwide have repaired fewer than half of the 122 levees identified by the government almost two years ago as too poorly maintained to be reliable in major floods, according to Army Corps of Engineers data.

State and local governments were given a year to fix levees cited by the corps for "unacceptable" maintenance deficiencies in a February 2007 review that was part of a post-Hurricane Katrina crackdown. Only 45 have had necessary repairs, according to data provided in response to a USA TODAY request. The remaining unrepaired levees are spread across 18 states and Puerto Rico — most in California and Washington.

People living behind the unrepaired levees "have every right to be concerned," said Tammy Conforti, head of the corps' levee safety program. "If (people) depend on that for flood risk reduction," she said of each unrepaired levee, "… those deficiencies need to be corrected."

In an effort to put pressure on state and local governments, the Army Corps has removed many of the unacceptable levees from the corps' inspection program, making them ineligible for federal rehabilitation funding if they are damaged by floodwaters. Property owners behind those levees also could be required to buy flood insurance if the Federal Emergency Management Agency finds that the maintenance problems leave them unprotected against a 100-year flood — an event that has a 1% chance of occurring in any year.

more...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-12-21-levees_N.htm

[aquart]

1. Sounds like a job for the infrastructure stimulus package.

[lapfog_1]

2. Before we blow billions on saving the levees

we need to first make some very hard decisions. We aren't fixing Global Warming... even if we do more than Al Gore and PE Obama can conceive of as even possible in the next 10 years, we aren't going to avoid some of the affects of Global Warming. Realizing that, we have to start thinking about what places we are going to give (back) to the ocean and which we can save through more and better levees.

Sorry, that's just the way things are.

[babylonsister]

3. I don't consider it 'blowing billions'. Does Katrina ring a bell?

I do agree that there are many fronts that need to be addressed, global warming being a biggie.