Chroniques patagones

La saison des ouragans commencera en juin, mais les digues ne seront pas prêtes, selon l'État, avant 2010. De rien n'aura servi un budget de deux milliards de dollars, ni le fait que l'État a eu durant des décennies le contrôle exclusif (c'est-à-dire, un monopole légal) des 400 km de digues qui protègent la Nouvelle-Orléans. L'État est inefficace. Toute décision prise par les politiciens parasitaires est arbitraire. L'État ne souffre d'aucun préjudice quand il échoue, lamentablement. Il ne reste plus qu'à espérer que la ville ne souffrira pas du passage d'un nouvel ouragan.

All day, every day and into the night, crews for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pour concrete into walls, pack dirt into hills and ram steel into the earth. They are scrambling to undo the damage Hurricane Katrina inflicted on the region's levee system.

Their task is urgent: Hurricane season begins June 1.

But even when the holes are plugged — a $2 billion endeavor — the entire 350-mile protection system remains flawed, the corps now admits. Flood walls are too weak in some places; earthen levees are too short in others. Locals say the only thing that will save the low-lying region from more flooding this summer is not getting hit with a strong storm.

Espérons également que les digues seront, cette fois, correctement conçues. En effet, grâce à la bureaucratie et à l'action des hommes politiques, les ingénieurs chargés de la conception et de la construction de l'ancien système de digues avaient intentionnellement utilisés des données qui n'étaient plus d'actualité. Frederick Chatry, le chef ingénieur en 1985, se rendit compte que les plans prévoyaient des digues inférieures aux nécessités. Mais au lieu de corriger les plans et d'augmenter la hauteur des digues, il décida les employer tels quels.

As they completed sections of the New Orleans area's hurricane protection system in the 1980s and '90s, Army Corps of Engineers officials assured residents the structures had been raised to standards mandated by Congress.

That, however, was mostly a legal fiction, documents and interviews with current and former corps employees show.

The corps' levees and floodwalls might have met specifications in the plans, but the engineers involved knew the measuring stick being used was out of date.

In fact, many sections of the system were a foot or more below authorized heights because the local office of the corps made a decision in 1985 not to use updated elevation values for projects then under way.

Sinon, on aurait pu supposer qu'après l'ouragan les habitants de la Nouvelle-Orléans eussent aimé souffler un peu. Mais c'est sans compter sans l'État : le Conseil de la ville a décidé d'augmenter les impôts.

Having postponed the politically unpopular task until after the April 22 primary, the New Orleans City Council voted this week to approve a package of 2006 property tax millages that includes a sizable increase in the city’s tax rate to help pay off its debts.

As soon as Mayor Ray Nagin signs the ordinances involved, the city can begin mailing out the long-delayed 2006 property tax bills.