Seen on the newswire:
The Army Corps of Engineers, rushing to meet President Bush’s promise to protect New Orleans by the start of the 2006 hurricane season, installed defective flood-control pumps last year despite warnings from its own expert that the equipment would fail during a storm, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
The 2006 hurricane season turned out to be mild, and the new pumps were never pressed into action. But the Corps and the politically connected manufacturer of the equipment are still struggling to get the 34 heavy-duty pumps working properly.
The article goes on to mention that the pump manufacturer has ties to the Bush family.
While the scent of corruption is never pleasant, I’m more concerned that someone apparently didn’t learn their lesson after Katrina, about the need to do the job correctly when attempting to protect the lives of inhabitants of a city.