Army Corps Admits Flaws in New Orleans Levees

In a sweeping new study of the causes of the disaster in New Orleans, the Army Corps of Engineers acknowledged today that the levees it built in the city were an incomplete and inconsistent patchwork of protection, containing flaws in design and construction, and not built to handle a hurricane anywhere near the size of Katrina.

"The hurricane protection system in New Orleans and southeast Louisiana was a system in name only," said the draft of the nine-volume report.

news story from the NY Times

news story from the Times Picayune

Executrive Summary (68pp) of the report

Army Corps of Engineers' page with the chapters from the report