Submitted by K. Howard, Mar 6, 2007 04:23

Genet's words are trueI Right after the storm passed, there was very little damage in the city, people were coming out of their houses and sighing in relief. If not for the structural and design flaws of the manmade levees, no one today would be even talking about Katrina in New Orleans. The winds were not that severe and it was mostly fallen trees and debris that needed to be cleaned up; the whole city would have returned within 24 hours to its normal life. It was only the water seeping into the streets from those broken, poorly built levees, that kicked our town in the stomach and destroyed any chances of nomalcy for years to come. The Army Corps finally admitted they designed them wrong and built them poorly. In most situations, this is called actionable negligence. How do you quantify the damages for the losses --and loss--of an entire American city?

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