Flood board asks Congress to investigate levee failures

• By ALLEN JOHNSON JR.
• Advocate New Orleans bureau
• Published: Jun 20, 2008 - Page: 14A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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CHALMETTE — At the urging of its most famous commissioner — “Rising Tide” author John M. Barry — the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority on Thursday voted 6-0 to ask Congress to investigate “the failure of the federal levees,” after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005.

“This authority has never actually gone on record calling for such a position and I think we should,” said Barry, who is secretary of the board and a nationally recognized authority on the disastrous 1927 flooding of the Mississippi River, which led to an expanded role for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The adopted resolution asks Congress to “conduct an independent, bipartisan investigation in the failure of the federal levees on August 29, 2005, which flooded 80 percent of the City of New Orleans,” and surrounding parishes including St. Bernard, Jefferson, Orleans, St. Tammany and Plaquemines.

Before the vote, Barry acknowledged that authority approval of his proposal would have little, if any, weight. Moreover, the flood authority’s resolution follows other state and local government bodies, activist organizations and editorial writers who have already called for some form of a federal “8-29” investigation.

“I don’t delude myself for a moment that this resolution would have any impact,” the author said. He allowed that the resolution would bring more national attention to southeast Louisiana — which is still struggling to recover nearly three years after the storm. In a clear reference to recent flooding in Wisconsin and Iowa, Barry added that a congressional commission probing Katrina should look at “the entire Mississippi (River) Valley.”

“A (national) commission that looks at the big picture would be useful,” he said.

 Clad in boots and the green fatigues of the corps, Col. Jeffrey Bedey — who is in charge of maintaining the 360-mile protective levee system around New Orleans — addressed the board before the vote.

Bedey said he did not know if he had the authority to comment on Barry’s proposal as a “representative of the U.S. Army.”

Speaking “as a citizen,” Bedey referred to language in the motion alleging the “failure of the federal levees.” He then said that any congressional investigation “ought to look at events leading up to Aug. 29. That would be my only comment.”

Flood authority commissioner Stanford Goings, a civil engineer, noted that Barry’s original motion did not include hard-hit Plaquemines and St. Tammany parishes. Barry acknowledged his error, apologized, and amended his resolution to include the two parishes.

Voting for the congressional probe: Barry, Larry McKee, Treasurer George Losonsky, Stratford Goings, Ricardo Pineda, and Louis Wittie. Absent: Dave Barnes, Thomas Jackson and non-voting commissioner Sara St. Vincent. Authority President Timothy Dowdy did not vote.

As president of the 11-member board of commissioners appointed by the governor, Doody may only vote to break a tie.

According to Levees.org, a grassroots organization in New Orleans conducting an online petition for congressional probe, the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority joins a number of governmental entities, civil rights groups, environmental organizations and activists who are calling for a federal “8-29” investigation, including: the Legislature, the New Orleans City Council, Jefferson Parish Council, St. Bernard Parish Council, St. Tammany Parish Council, New Orleans CityBusiness newspaper, Gambit Weekly newspaper, The Daily Advertiser (Lafayette), the NAACP (New Orleans), National Urban League, the League of Women Voters (New Orleans), the local chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women and ACORN.