Instead of desperately searching for ways to help – some liberals and Democrats - have been desperately searching for reasons to blame President Bush for the flood of New Orleans caused by Hurricane Katrina. Their blatant attempt at political exploitation has been reprehensible to say the least.

While doing so they have shot themselves in the foot. Researching the bogus claims of the liberal hate mongers I learned that liberal environmentalists may bear some responsibility for the flood of New Orleans.

The first of three articles I wrote concerning the political exploitation of the Hurricane Katrina disaster addressed the bogus claims by Democrats and liberals that global warming was to blame - ergo Bush’s environmental policies were ultimately the cause of New Orleans flooding.

This lie was revealed when hurricane experts said there was no correlation between Hurricane Katrina and global warming.

The second article addressed the equally bogus claim that the Iraq war and Bush tax cuts caused a lack of funding of levee projects in New Orleans and led to the New Orleans flood.

Once again, experts discredited this fabrication. Officials from the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE), and academicians said that there was no correlation between the projects with reduced funding and the flooding.

I concluded there were two reasons for this. One was that the funding cut was only for preliminary plans – and was the result of a new budgeting process. Two was any project would take approximately twenty years to complete.

However, I noticed that there was a proposed flood prevention project, aborted nearly thirty years ago, which would have alleviated the flooding of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. This project was to build floodgates at Chef Menteur and Rigolets passes to block storm surges from the Gulf causing Lake Pontchartrain to flood New Orleans – which is what happened during Hurricane Katrina.

Why was this project aborted? Environmentalists sued to have it stopped. An environmentalist group stated the proposed Rigolets and Chef Menteur floodgates of the Lake Pontchartrain Hurricane Prevention Project would have a negative effect on the environment.

During the course of the trial the defense counsel, US Attorney Gerald Gallinghouse, felt so strongly that the project should continue that, according to one source, he said, " …. He would go before the United States Congress with (Congressman) F. Edward Hebert to pass a resolution, exempting the Hurricane Barrier Project from the rules and regulations of the National Environmental Policy Act because, in his opinion, it is necessary to protect the citizens of New Orleans from a hurricane."

Despite this, the judge ruled in favor of the environmentalists and the project was aborted. However, the ACE considered this project so important they never scrapped the plans for it.

Indeed the September-October 204 edition of Riverside (the magazine of the New Orleans District Army Corps of Engineers Public Affairs Office) referred to this lawsuit and project. Eric Lincoln’s article titled, Old Plans Revived for Category 5 Hurricane Protection, stated:

 “In 1977, plans for hurricane protection structures at the Rigolets and Chef Menteur Pass were sunk when environmental groups sued the district. They believed that the environmental impact statement did not adequately address several potential problems, including impacts on Lake Pontchartrain’s ecosystem and damage to wetlands. Ultimately, an agreement between the parties resulted in a consent decree to forego the structures at the Rigolets and Chef Menteur Pass. ….The new initial feasibility study will look at protecting the area between the Pearl River and Mississippi River from a Category 5 storm. …. alternatives that would be studied in the initial feasibility report are:  Construction of floodgate structures, with environmental modifications, at Rigolets and Chef Pass …” (emphasis mine)

This time the Army Corps of Engineers would modify the original plans because of the environmentalists. However, the project was already delayed more than two decades because of the environmentalist’s lawsuit. If begun immediately it would take another two decades to complete -- a forty-year delay.

According to Professor Gregory Stone, the James P. Morgan Distinguished Professor and Director of the Coastal Studies Institute of Louisiana State University, these floodgates would have alleviated the flooding of New Orleans caused by Hurricane Katrina.  " The floodgates would have blocked the flow of water from the Gulf of Mexico, through Lake Borgne, through the Rigolets (and Chef Mentuer) into Lake Pontchartrain. This would likely have reduced storm surge coming from the gulf and into the Lake Pontchartrain, " Professor Stone told me during an interview September 6.

The New Orleans Army Corps of Engineers and Professor Stone were not the only people cognizant of the consequences that could and did result because of the environmental activists. While speaking with Sean Hannity on his radio show, Labor Day, former Louisiana Congressman Bob Livingston also referred to environmentalists who prevented hurricane prevention projects.

Many politicians are asking for hearings. If there are hearings, they should include the contribution to the flooding made by environmental groups, which aborted or delayed hurricane prevention projects.

The disaster of Hurricane Katrina has illustrated once again the ignorance, fanaticism, and incompetence of liberals. This is just more evidence that most policies proffered by liberals and Democrats – whether it concerns crime, the Cold War, the Global War on Terror, or the environment - are deleterious to the nation.

As Ronald Reagan once said: “…. the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn’t so!

Part 1 of this article

Part 2