| July 26, 2006 - (Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Sen. David Vitter today issued the following statement on the release of the Corps of Engineers’ inundation maps: “Tragically, the Corps of Engineers confirmed today what we all knew in our gut – its delay in providing adequate pumping capacity at the 17th Street and other canals could well lead to the reflooding of thousands of homes in the event of a significant storm this hurricane season. “Several weeks ago, I demanded that the Corps release inundation maps which it had regarding this danger. After some foot dragging, the corps released the maps – but conveniently left off all water depth information. It was attempting to give the impression that its delay in providing adequate pumping capacity wouldn't make a huge difference in terms of areas flooded. What this conveniently ignored was the fact that some areas would be flooded far more severely because of Corps delay. “I demanded that the Corps release this crucial water depth information, which they finally did today. It confirms exactly what I feared – large areas of the metro area that may have had minor street flooding before will now have two to three feet on top of that – significant home flooding – because of the Corps' failure to build adequate pumping capacity for this hurricane season. “And unfortunately, these maps the Corps has released don't take into account several factors I've pointed out to them that would make the flooding even worse. They've admitted that. So these maps understate the flooding. “Corps delay threatens to reflood our metro area and kill our recovery in the event of a significant storm this hurricane season. Once again, I urge the Corps to bring more capacity on line this season – to work with Jefferson Parish and the city of New Orleans on innovative ponding and other measures – before this happens. Our whole recovery is at stake,” Vitter said. |
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