By the time Hurricane Katrina passed to the east of New Orleans, it wasn't a once-in-a-lifetime storm; the city probably experienced no more than Category 2 conditions. And many of the levees that failed weren't breached; they gave way because they had been built on ground vulnerable to seepage.
These facts, known to locals, have not been quite as well disseminated to the larger public, which has been led to think that the events of Aug. 29, 2005, were beyond the powers of humans to control.
In his documentary The Big Uneasy, actor, satirist and New Orleans resident Harry Shearer pushes back against conventional wisdom. He has written and directed a cogent 98-minute investigative chronicle that — along with Spike Lee's pair of HBO films, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts and If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise — is an indispensable part of any history of New Orleans before, during and after Katrina.
Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of Louisiana State University's Hurricane Center, led the state's investigation. That and a second independent inquiry, financed by the National Science Foundation, found numerous engineering and organizational failures by the Army Corps of Engineers in the years leading up to Katrina, failures that put the city at risk.
When they issued their findings, though, the outcome was predictable: hearings were held, lawsuits were filed — and the investigators were ostracized. Van Heerden even lost his job. (He has sued the university for harassment and wrongful termination.)
The Big Uneasy also contends that New Orleans remains in jeopardy. Maria Garzino, a corps engineer, identifies serious problems with the new pumps that now supposedly support and protect city canals. She has been named public servant of the year by the federal Office of Special Counsel — yet, she says, nothing has been fixed.
Shearer breaks up his narrative with lighthearted if poignant interviews with residents. But his focus is on why New Orleans was flooded. "This was not a natural disaster," says Robert Bea, a leader of the National Science Foundation investigation. "This was a disaster caused by people."
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Thursday, April 7th 2011 at 1:44PM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
