I just saw an Army Corp Engineer talking about the levee's and he said that they built them to withstand a Cat. 3 because it was cost effective. I am sorry but you build to meet the worst case scenario, espically when you are that close to the coast. I draw houses everyday and will tell you that FL has some of the toughest standards in regards to hurricanes compared to other areas like the AL, MS, LA cost.

What it all boils down to is the "It won't happen to me" syndrome. We have built ourselves some levee's and they have worked for us for the past xx years so why worry about spending money to fix something that is not broke. In reality it has always been broke but they have been blessed by not having a direct hit. I believe that a strong Cat. 3 with a direct hit would have done the same as Katrina did. It was poorly engineered and the city officals refused to accept the fact it should have been redesigned. Now N.O. is a victim of their own blindness since in a normal flood the waters would naturally receed, instead the levees have created a human made bowl. I feel sorry for the people there and my heart goes out to them but I lay a lot of the blame on the city engineers and poloticians.