Re: Bush and the Levees
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The levees were built to withstand a category 3 hurricane, not a cat 4 or 5.
So, one could infer that after a category 4 hurricane hit, the levees might not hold up.
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Sort of. The "rating" that they got that said they would withstand cat 3 meant that the surge associated with a cat 3 would be too small to top the levees as built. The failure that we saw (structural failure) was not the failure that was anticipated (inadequate height).
It's a nit, but it's a significant one from a engineering viewpoint. This is a distinction that Bush probably wasn't making when he said what he said, though.
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