Beyond Katrina

Laughs with Leno: NOLA Oil Spill

Jay Leno: “And the Coast Guard closed over 100 miles of the Mississippi River after an oil spill of over 400,000 gallons of oil. The Federal government leaped into action…within 30 minutes of the spill. … How does this make the people of New Orleans feel, huh? They get wiped out by Hurricane Katrina, it takes FEMA, what, six days to show up? A barrel of oil spills, the White House goes, ‘No!’ And they’re down there.”

Source: Agweb.com

Engineers Faulted on Hurricane System

The New York Times: Asked to explain its failure to protect New Orleans from flooding, the Army Corps of Engineers produced an answer yesterday: Bit by bit over some 50 years, the corps made a series of decisions based largely on dollars, politics and scheduling that inadvertently left the city’s hurricane protection system substantially weaker than it should have been. Continue here.

Victims of Katrina File Rash of Lawsuits

Federal Government Faces More Than 250,000 Claims

Washington Post staff writer, Peter Whoriskey  has penned an article covering the tricky terrain of Katrina litigaton against the federal government for the levee failures, here.   The issues are complex, litigation could take a long time, and no matter what the  outcome it will certainly set a precedent. Some experts say that even though the levees breeched, "it is by no means clear that the government can be sued as a result". I'll definitely be tracking this one.

7 N.O. officers indicted

NEW ORLEANS — Seven police officers were indicted Thursday on murder or attempted murder charges in shootings on a bridge that left two people dead during the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. More at 2theadvocate.com and at wafb.com.

Katrina Storm Surge Blogs

Over at Weather Underground,  blogger Margie Kieper is organizing a  series of blogs documenting the impact of Katrina's storm surge. Today, she documents the damage at Grand Island, LA. Each day for the next 20 days she'll move down the coast to Mobile, AL, showing what happened to each 10-mile long section.

Damage to Grand Island, LA in the aftermath of Katrina. Image credit: NOAA.