I repeat – I do not condone personal attacks. Form the conversation in this forum, seems others are doing it already. I always encourage healthy debate!!!!

Re: New Orleans’ Levees: Are They Safe?
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Salty water…tap water. What’s the difference right Bob Bea? I’ll bet this guy can’t even pass the Pepsi Challenge.

Tasting water on the road in the 9th ward. How disgusting is that? With all the death that was floating around in that water and settled on the ground. I only hope he swallowed a lot of mosquito larva when he tasted that water. Maybe he’ll get a bad case of diarrhea , or better yet the E bola virus.

Bob Bea does worse for New Orleans’ image than the Heineken Looter Guy.

Re: New Orleans’ Levees: Are They Safe?
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Adam,
You have provided some very good information on our “friend” Bob Bea. One item that you may have forgotten is that Bob Bea once did live in New Orleans. He and his family were flooded in 1965 during Hurricane Betsy. Is this perhaps one catalyst in Bob Bea’s desire to do everything he can to discredit the Corps, even at the expense of the citizens of New Orleans and the welfare of the City itself? He had no problem abandoning the City and moving on with his life in another state. Why would he think everyone else shouldn’t have this same attitude. Another question you must ask is why Dr. Raymond Seed has now distanced himself from Bob Bea. Bea and Seed had made several trips to the City after Katrina and performed several inspections of the Corps levees during the initial repairs. There were some concerns raised, but after further information and testing results showed that the material being used was more than adequate, both seemed satisfied that the Corps was doing its job. What a difference a lawsuit makes! Bob Bea has no right to tell people where they should and should not live as long as he is providing false and intentionally misleading information for his own private agenda. Why didn’t he go to the Corps or IPET or Team Louisiana or ANY other Engineering organization with this information if he thought the flood wall was in such imminent danger? As a professional engineer, he has both a duty and responsibility to the public to act on their behalf and in their best interest, NOT HIS. He is acting irresponsibly and is no better than an ambulance chaser in my eyes. If the City is going to come back, we all must realize that the failures in the hurricane protection system cannot solely be blamed on the Corps. Congress has held up funding for too long and has dictated which projects the Corps could and could not construct. Less than 2 years after Katrina, Congress is again tightening the belt and holding up much needed funding for the hurricane protection to the proper agencies. If we only had 1/10th of the money that was spent in Iraq THIS YEAR, we could have world class levees!! The Corps can never build a system that will protect us from every hurricane, but with the proper funding and authority, we can enjoy life in New Orleans at an acceptable risk level. I love New Orleans and its culture and I would much rather live here than some place like Atlanta.

Re: New Orleans’ Levees: Are They Safe?
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Bob Bea’s “credentials” – that’s an interesting topic! Have you actually looked at his credentials before asking that question? As a civil engineer, he has never spent one hour of his time designing a levee, floodwall or floodgate. He has never spent a moment of his time in the field verifying that a contractor was constructing a levee that he designed correctly. He only recently received his Ph.D. and it wasnt even from an engineering accredited college in the United States. And what does it mean to be an “expert”. Just because he has a Ph.D. in engineering doesnt make him a hurricane protection expert. An eye doctore is no more an expert in open heart surgery than Bea is in levee construction. As I mentioned before, his most important “credential” is the fact that he has spent a good portion of his career as a paid expert witness in lawsuits – much like his is now.

Ask yourself this question, if Bob Bea was actually concerned about our wellfare, why didnt he go directly to the Corps or the Levee Board first to address the leakage problem? Why go to the media first? Do you realize that it took weeks between the time the video was taken to the time it made it to the internet? If it were a real problem, he would have knowingly had us at risk for all of that time. And as it turns out, by the TP article yesterday, he was lying! Scientific evidence, not a “taste” of a couple of drops of ponding water, proved that the water is coming from brokent pipes! Bob Bea only cares about one thing – Bob Bea! I gaurentee you, when the Hurricane Katrina lawsuit is over, that will be the last time you ever see Bob Bea in the state of Louisiana.

You should also realize the obvious fact that Corps employees dont live in D.C., they live right here in the city and have way more passion about rebuilding the hurricane protection and have way more at stake then any so called expert. You should also examine where your getting your information about the quality of the work and where the money went. Educate yourself with actual facts – not media spin – and you might have a bit more faith in the rebuilding of the city. We need everyone to be on the same team – working toward the same goal – and that is building a better New Orleans. All people like Bea do is scare people away and ultimately hurt the entire city in the process.

Re: New Orleans’ Levees: Are They Safe?
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Adam:
Are you confident enough in the levees to stay in your N.O. home for the next storm?
The whole metro area will be a ghost town for the next storm. NO ONE has faith in the levees.

Re: New Orleans’ Levees: Are They Safe?
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Well, nobody asked you Adam. I find it interesting that you automatically label this expert a wacko before you even bothered to check his credentials. What is so strange about tasting (note I said tasting, not drinking) standing water to determine whether it is salty or not? A fairly inexpensive way to answer a simple question.

And I’m from New Orleans and I would be angry that someone would encourage people to stay away…unless it is for their own health and well being.

If you loved this city half as much as you profess you would channel a little less anger and a lot more hope rather than spending time attacking someone you don’t know a damned thing about, especially considering the fact that he’s one of the few independent experts that don’t exhalt the divinity of the Army Corps of Engineers when everyone with half a brain around here knows they screwed up and have been sitting around on their fat asses collecting paychecks for work that was never done, work that was never inspected properly, signing off on equipment that is outdated and either inoperative or in dire need of repair. To this day, they are still doing half-assed work and this report brings it to the public eye. THAT is what should piss people off.

Re: New Orleans’ Levees: Are They Safe?
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If you ask me, this guy Bob Bea is a wacko! Anyone who would go into a neighborhood (in the disarray that the lower 9th ward is in) and actually drink standing water on the ground, has absolutely no credibility to me! That’s just stupid!

And besides, the guy clearly has an agenda, as clearly stated in the article, “Bea . . . is now serving as an expert witness in a multi-billion-dollar class-action lawsuit against the corps.” Looks to me like Bea is just an ambulance chaser who is clearly in this just for the money!

Also, it should make any New Orleanian mad as hell that someone would make statements regarding not moving back to the city! Who the hell does he think he is? I’m certainly not going to base my decision to move back to the city, the city that I love, from some nut case that lives in California, drinks water from the ground, and tries to tell me not to rebuild my home on such a non-scientific basis. Go home, Mr. Bea, go home to California and leave the rebuilding of New Orleans to the people who love this city – and not looking to make a buck at its expense!!!
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Re: New Orleans’ Levees: Are They Safe?
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This topic brings about strong feelings of our government because here in New Orleans, everyone is being encouraged to rebuild, to come home, and make New Orleans what it used to be. In my opinion, those who are spending thousands of dollars trying to turn their house into a home is wasting away all those monies. In wake of the next possible hurricane or very bad storm, it will be a reenactment of Hurricane Katrina, with far less people to have to evacuate. They[‘re giving people false hopes and making it seem like its “safe” to live here when its not. Its scary to see these photos because its reality and that’s not what’s portrayed here.

Nagin is all for money (so we won’t depend on him), Blanco is all for money (and showed far less concern than Bush), and the White House is failing to show us where the millions of dollars are that were donated to rebuilding the city.

Re: New Orleans’ Levees: Are They Safe?
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From the articles it does not appear the leves are safe. The real question here now is will Mayor Nagan once again fail his city and not get them all out should another Katrina hurricane approach.