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No he escrito nada sobre el huracán Katrina. Para informar sobre lo que iba pasando, muchos otros bloggers se han dado prisa y maña, por lo que no he encontrado nada relevante que añadir en ese sentido; tratar de buscar culpabilidades o arrimar el ascua a la sardina ideológica me parecía miserable, y hemos tenido muestras bastante lamentables por parte de unos y otros; y para reflexionar sobre el papel que cabe esperar de los Estados Unidos en el mundo después de esta calamidad, ha venido presto el Sr. X para dejarnos gratamente boquiabiertos con su primer post en Freelance Corner.

Sin embargo, hoy he leído una noticia que me ha revuelto un poco el estómago. Reconozco cierto oportunismo al traerla a colación, pero la noticia perdería toda su impactante fuerza si se citase más adelante. Es ahora, con Nueva Orleans todavía anegada en aguas infectas, con los cadáveres pudriéndose al sol, cuando esta noticia puede realmente conmover alguna conciencia. No creo que la noticia deba emplearse como arma arrojadiza contra nadie; pero sí debería servir para sacudir alguna conciencia y para revisar no pocas estrategias.

In the wake of Hurricane Betsy 40 years ago, Congress approved a massive hurricane barrier to protect New Orleans from storm surges that could inundate the city. But the project, signed into law by President Johnson, was derailed in 1977 by an environmental lawsuit. Now the question is: Could that barrier have protected New Orleans from the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina?

“If we had built the barriers, New Orleans would not be flooded,” said Joseph Towers, the retired chief counsel for the Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans district.Tower’s view is endorsed by a former key senator, along with academic experts, who say a hurricane barrier is the only way to control the powerful storm surges that enter Lake Pontchartrain and threaten the city. Other experts are less sure, saying the barrier would have been no match for Katrina.

The project was stopped in its tracks when an environmental lawsuit won a federal injunction on the grounds that the Army’s environmental impact statement was flawed. By the mid-1980s, the Corps of Engineers abandoned the project. The project faced formidable opposition not only from environmentalists but from regional government officials outside of New Orleans who argued that the barriers would choke commerce and harm marine life in ecologically sensitive Lake Pontchartrain.The barrier would have protected New Orleans from storm surges barreling into the lake through two narrow passages — the Rigolets and the Chef Menteur Pass.During Hurricane Katrina, the lake — swollen 12 feet — was slammed by 135 mph winds against the city’s storm walls and levees. The barriers failed in five places and the city was flooded. On the city’s eastern flank, the surge approached the city through a network of canals from Lake Borgne, which was also swollen and raging.