Buried deep in the Washington Post's coverage of yesterday's White House press conf announcing the doubling of federal money for levee rebuilding in New Orleans, the Post's first discussion of The Problem:
By some meteorologists' accounts, Katrina had weakened to a Category 3 hurricane by the time it hit downtown New Orleans on Aug. 29. Its 20-foot surge overwhelmed levees in dozens of places in the city's eastern suburbs. But in central New Orleans, two key flood walls were breached even though water levels never reached their design capacity. The collapse of the two flood walls along the London Avenue and 17th Street canals has prompted investigations into whether the levee system was improperly designed or poorly built.
The $1.6 billion previously set aside for levees is being used to repair broken and damaged flood walls and correct what administration officials called "design and construction flaws" throughout the system. Those repairs are scheduled to be completed in June, before the start of next year's hurricane season.
The news here is that "design and construction flaws," discovered weeks ago by three independent investigations, are now being attributed to "administration officials."
PS: Who was absent from that White House briefing? HINT: He lives there. Apparently, WH officials did not want to upstage the Iraqi voting with an actual POTUS appearance.