Political Irony

After the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina would found to have been largely caused by faulty construction on the levees surrounding New Orleans, maybe the government would try to do a better job protecting the city in the future. You would think, but you would be wrong.

A local TV station in Louisiana has found that the expansion joints in the newly constructed flood walls were stuffed with old newspapers, rather than the required rubber seal. Finally, a constructive role for the press! What followed was a blame game between the contractor who did the work and the government. The contractor says that the newspaper was only temporary and the final work waits on money from the government (which has never come). So the “temporary” newspaper is still there, years later, rotting and being eaten by bugs.

Subhash Kulkarni, whom the American Society of Civil Engineers named the outstanding engineer in Louisiana in 2003, said “I cannot even comprehend that somebody would stuff some newspaper in there”.

Not only that, but the contractor hired by the US Army Corps of Engineers is not a licensed contractor.

Video at the link:

http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl042408tpleveepaper.98095b74.html

Thanks to the News of the Weird