Re: Federal judge rules Corps of Engineers liable for flood damage
Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl
for all your efforts and the efforts of Levees.Org, the grass roots
organization that you founded and nourished so tirelessly to achieve
such a monumental victory against such a powerful organization such as
Corp. We also need to congratulate my colleagues Professors Ray Seed and
Professor Bob Bea, who also tirelessly helped your organization as well
as spoke out on these wrong doings of Corp.
I am sending a copy of this to our structural engineering forum called
Seaint (Structural Engineering Association Int. ) where we currently
having a very constructive debate among ourselves on how a small number
of engineers in our profession which I have put at only 0.01% who act in
a criminally negligent manner or are outright corrupt or both, neglect
their prime responsibility to be to provide for public safety and focus
either on preserving their jobs or simply pocketing illegitimate income
or both.
This is a great victory also for you to show how ASCE (the American
Society of Civil Engineers) in a morally corrupt manner entered the
picture right after Katrina and instead of investigating failure of
levees on behalf of its members in an objective manner, exonerated the
Corp of Engineers from any wrong doing. The same thing that ASCE did
after the collapse of World Trade Center, when it took FEMA (Taxpayer's
) money and put the top officer of the firm (Skilling Ward Magnusson
Barkshire , now Magnusson Klemencic Associates), Jon Magnusson, and the
wife of Structural Engineer , Leslie E. Robertson , who was the
structural engineer of the record on the Building Performance Assessment
Team to investigate why WTC towers collapsed. Of course to no surprise,
the ASCE/FEMA report
(http://www.civil.columbia.edu/ce4210/FEMA_403CD/html/pdfs/403_cover-toc.pdf)
falsely stated that there was no structural problem with the design of
the WTC where there were countless violation of design code and
practice of structural engineering including the use of "steel bearing
walls" as the structural system and the use of steel truss joists in
floors of a very tall skyscraper.
As Sally Regenhardt ,our mutual friend and the founder of Skyscraper
Safety Campaign (www.skyscrapersafety.org) which campaigns for safe
skyscrapers since the collapse of WTC towers, has in all of her e-mails:
*/"Let us not grow tired in doing good.
For at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
Galatians 6:9/*/
**
/I hope one day ASCE and the structural engineers who designed WTC as
well as ASCE and its officers who initiated a cover-up to exonerate The
structural engineering firm as well as the structural engineer of the
record from any wrong doing or even a minor negligence will be brought
before a judge as well.
Sally, if you come to Berkeley, you should give a talk here at our Law
School. You are the true American bringing out one of the things that
makes this country so great: "Justice for All"
With best wishes and please relay my very best congratulations to all in
Levees.Org
"Hassan"
Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl, Ph.D., P.E., Professor
www.ce.berkeley.edu/~astaneh
=======================================================
Levees.Org wrote:
> Levees.Org
>
> November
> 19, 2009
>
> Dear Hassan
>
> Federal Judge Stanwood Duval ruled late Wednesday that the Army Corps
> of Engineers' mismanagement of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet was
> directly responsible for flood damage of homes in St. Bernard Parish
> and the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
>
> The New York Times wrote "It was the first time that the government
> has been held liable for any of the flooding that inundated the New
> Orleans area after Aug. 29, 2005, vindicating the long-held contention
> of many in the region that the flooding was far more than an act of God."
>
> Plaintiff attorneys Joe Bruno and Pierce O'Donnell said they expect to
> travel to Washington, D.C., as early as next week to try to convince
> members of the administration of President Barack Obama and members of
> Congress to consider revisiting requests for compensation by New
> Orleans-area residents in both the areas covered by the decision and
> in other areas flooded by corps-related failures of levees.
>
> The corps allowed the channel to attack the levees in three ways,
> Duval said, allowing the levees to slump under their own weight,
> failing to armor the channel's banks against ship wakes and allowing
> saltwater to exacerbate the loss of wetlands throughout the area.
>
> Check in with Levees.org's website for updates.
>
> Thank you for supporting Levees.org.
>
> We are winning.
>
> Sandy Rosenthal
> Founder, Levees.org
>
>
>
> Click here for the NYTimes story.
> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/us/19orleans.html?_r=2
> <http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=YRiy43aQ5mKus8pI8juflFGsOWZP7UkR>
>
> You can see the judgement and opinion here.
> http://www.wwltv.com/news/Federal-court--70421627.html
> <http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=gVLwcA9xJz9kNgyOtw0IklGsOWZP7UkR>
>
> New York Chapter
> bhsch...@levees.org
>
> California Chapter
> kc.c...@levees.org
>
> Florida Chapter
> DrLe...@levees.org
>
> Illinois Chapter
> der...@levees.org
>
> Oregon Chapter
> Ore...@levees.org
>
> Launching soon: Chapter in Connecticut
>
>
> Follow us on Twitter! http://twitter.com/LeveesOrg
> <http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=ZcKMpfDR0lSsegL3VxNrjVGsOWZP7UkR>
>
>
>
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Chance, Acie
OK now all the liberal, socialists can take a wack at me, but WE THE PEOPLE should take care of ourselves without looking to government to wipe or asses.
PS: Do something besides bitching about what someone else is doing.
Michel Blangy
"Hassan"
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Richard Calvert
They knew there was a problem. If you or I knew one of our structures could fail, we certainly couldn't use the excuse "well no one was willing to pay me to fix it" ...
And smart enough for what? people to live were there is no chance of natural catastrophe? Where might that be?
To me this is a good thing. I imagine that politics held more weight than safety in this situation; and that is a problem that ought to be addressed by someone.
Chuck Utzman
You seem to be assuming that this will be a rational discussion & not
another parade of political rants. Good luck with that.
Chuck
Richard Calvert wrote:
> So wait, we left an engineering decision up to "the people?" And are you saying that we should pay more taxes? Or, that the agency who shouldn't be held liable, should better appropriate its funds? Kind of seems like you're saying neither... but then how would you propose it to have been fixed?
>
> They knew there was a problem. If you or I knew one of our structures could fail, we certainly couldn't use the excuse "well no one was willing to pay me to fix it" ...
>
> And smart enough for what? people to live were there is no chance of natural catastrophe? Where might that be?
>
> To me this is a good thing. I imagine that politics held more weight than safety in this situation; and that is a problem that ought to be addressed by someone.
>
Glenn Otto
and/or New Orleans to fix the levees. The money was directed by the
local/state politicians to
"other projects" or vote buying programs. The Corps of Engineers has done
some things they regretted in the past, like the channel widening into the
Everglades, which they went back and hit "undo" years later. Politicians
are never liable for anything, so people have to sue the money sources, i.e.
federal government. I wasn't at the trial for this, I only read the
article.
I wouldn't have live in New Orleans if offered a choice because I think it
is stupid to live below sea level. They should build an overflow canal to
the Death Valley (I forgot how far below sea level it is) to balance it all.
Yeah, that's the ticket! I live in Virginia Beach where Edgar Cayce chose,
so I don't have to worry about natural disasters. North Carolina was built
to protect us in Virginia.
Glenn C. Otto, P.E.
A Structural Engineer, P.C.
Virginia Beach, VA 23454
www.astructuralengineeronline.com
"Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say 'what
should be the reward of such sacrifices?' ... If ye love wealth better than
liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom,
go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick
the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may
posterity forget that you were our countrymen!"
--Samuel Adams
Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl
http://www.ce.berkeley.edu/projects/neworleans/report/VOL_1.pdf
It is an excellent and historical work of high integrity and high quality research in the service of society to save lives.
Regards.
"Hassan"
Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl, Ph.D., P.E., Professor
UC Berkeley
==============================
Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl
Bea, who was heavily involved in this case, and was co-investigator of
New Orleans levee failure with Professor Seed, the factor of safety that
Corps has used in design of levees of New Orleans was 1.1 and they were
designed for Hurricane 3 not 4 which is expected there.
This was done knowingly and resulted in loss of 1500 lives. Now, we the
taxpayers will pay billions of dollars in compensation to the survivors
of the victims of this gross negligence. If the Corps had done it right,
we would have those 1500 people still alive.
As my colleague, Professor Karlene Roberts of Haas School of Business
here at UC says: "Engineers think planet earth is uninhabited". Of
course I do not believe all engineers do that but I totally agree with
her that a percentage of engineers do and when they ignore their
responsibility to public safety and protection of environment, innocent
people get killed because of failure of their design.
Fortunately, our great democracy has mechanisms in place to prevent such
criminal acts and that is the judiciary. In this case, once again,
our judicial system, protected the society from criminally negligent
engineers who try to keep their jobs or gain financially at the expense
of public safety.
Regards.
"Hassan"
Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl, Ph.D., P.E., Professor
UC Berkeley
==============================
From: Richard Calvert <Rich...@lbbe.com>
To: "sea...@seaint.org" <sea...@seaint.org>
Subject: RE: Federal judge rules Corps of Engineers liable for flood damage
...
They knew there was a problem. If you or I knew one of our structures
could fail, we certainly couldn't use the excuse "well no one was
willing to pay me to fix it" ...
===============================
Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl
If one of those 1500 people who died during the flooding that according
to independent and highly qualified experts on levees and now according
to a federal judge was caused by Corps of Engineers negligence, would
you still say the same thing as you say here in a very angry tone?
If the body of a victim of this flooding which was floating in the dirty
flood waters of Ward 9 as we saw in horror on our TV screens was , God
forbid the body of one of your family members or other loved ones, would
you still say the things that you are saying in your post in defense of
these irresponsible engineers?
Please think about it when you are gathering around the table this
Thanksgiving.
Thank you
Regards.
"Hassan"
Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl, Ph.D., P.E., Professor
UC Berkeley
=========================
From: "Michel Blangy" <mbl...@satco-inc.com>
To: <sea...@seaint.org>
Subject: RE: Federal judge rules Corps of Engineers liable for flood damage
ditto
From: Chance, Acie [mailto:ACh...@lacsd.org]
Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 8:34 AM
To: sea...@seaint.org
Subject: RE: Federal judge rules Corps of Engineers liable for flood
damage
....... Lets all blame the federal government for everything,
then WE THE PEOPLE are not responsible for anything. The Corp of
Engineers are the same as any government agency. They had requested
funding to work on the levees but the tax payers did not want to pony up
the money. WE THE PEOPLE do not want to pay more taxes but we want the
government to take care of us in all things.
...........
Michel Blangy
-Michel
-----Original Message-----
From: Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl [mailto:ast...@ce.berkeley.edu]