Levee Living

I’ve seen this headline before:

“Governor Blasts Feds For Response To Levees”

I’ve heard this quote before:

"I think the response that the federal government has given us is unacceptable," the governor told reporters at an Earth Day event on a San Pedro beach. "We need the federal government to come in and help us so we can build the levees as quickly as possible."

You say you don’t remember Blanco attending an Earth Day event? You say you’ve never heard of San Pedro beach in Louisiana?

That’s because it’s in California:

"We're not going to wait for their response," Schwarzenegger said. "We have seen what happens in New Orleans when people waited for the federal government. Their response was terrible there and we don't want to be a victim of that."

It looks like we are not alone in the shoddy levees department.

And California really isn’t going to wait for the feds:

President Bush has issued an unusual waiver that will allow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to accept state money for critical levee repairs, a senior Bush administration official said Friday.

***

The governor had sought the waiver to speed repairs on 29 levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta that need critical repairs to prevent flooding and ensure the reliability of delivering water to cities and farms.

State officials fear that California's fragile levee system could fail in an earthquake or under strain from the unusually heavy rainfall and snow the state has seen this year.

Imagine that. A state wanting to stop a catastrophe before it happens. And the federal government does want to give it the funds to do so. Sound familiar?

Hey, but what do I know? I’m ten feet below.