Builder misconduct may have led to flooding

There have been allegations of serious cheating by builders.
WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON -- Investigators added a possible new explanation for some of the flooding that devastated New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina: Deliberate misconduct by contractors who may have skimped on construction materials in building the city's floodwalls and levees.
Experts probing the cause of the flooding have received at least a dozen allegations of serious cheating by builders and possibly others involved in levee construction, two investigators said Wednesday in testimony before a Senate panel. They said these were potentially criminal acts that may well have contributed to the collapse of the city's flood-control system on Aug. 29.
The allegations, while not yet proved, have prompted the investigators to request a meeting next week with federal law enforcement officials to share details of the reports.
The list of alleged misdeeds includes the use of weak, poorly compacted soils in levee construction and deliberate skimping on steel pilings used to anchor floodwalls to the ground.
"What we have right now are stories of malfeasance and some field evidence that seems to correlate with those stories," said Raymond B. Seed, leader of one of three independent teams of experts investigating why the levees failed. Seed, an engineering professor at the University of California at Berkeley, said it is not yet clear how big a role such acts ultimately played in the failure of the levees.
The reports emerged from one of two Senate hearings held Wednesday to examine why New Orleans' levee system failed so spectacularly, and how it might be rebuilt to prevent catastrophic flooding when the next hurricane hits.