The Big Uneasy

I noted in the re-introduction to this blog that it was not always going to be about IMAGES and photography.  Sometimes, the AND MORE part of me will need to express itself.  What better time for this than an event that harkens back to the post that started it all.  To loop back on that first blog in 2006, I return to the subject of Hurricane Katrina and the destruction of my former home town.

Lower Ninth Ward One Year Later (12 April 2006)

Last night, I attended a screening of the new documentary, ‘The Big Uneasy’ at the great AFI Silver Theater in Silver Spring, MD (see http://www.thebiguneasy.com/index.html).  Harry Shearer, the humorist and part-time New Orleans resident, wrote, directed and narrated the film.  He was also present to take questions as this screening was part of a weekend of presentations in the D.C area. 

There was a decent crowd of appreciative, similarly-minded people in the audience who agreed with the film’s premise – the destruction of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina was NOT a natural disaster but a human failure.  The flood control system was (as I noted almost five years ago) poorly designed, badly engineered and not well maintained.  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the main villain in the movie, is responsible for the miserable flood protection.  In addition, they confounded their storm protection goals in the middle of the 20^th century by building the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO – “Mister Go”).  This boondoggle did little to serve the shipping business it was supposed to support.  However, as a funnel to direct sea water to within a few miles of the city, it performed magnificently.  Coastal wetlands were obliterated and storm surges had a much better path to the very edge of town.

Lakefront Marina One Year Later (10 April 2006)

The main premise of the film, besides showing that New Orleans is too important and special to abandon (I agree), is that the Corps’ inferior methods and questionable practices continue to be applied today as the flood control system is being rebuilt.  A feature player in the film and also present to take questions was Maria Garzino, a Corps employee and pump expert who was brought in to test the replacement systems that were going in.  She found multiple examples of poor designs and parts deficiencies.  She reported that the tests consistently failed to meet performance standards and the criteria were weakened so the equipment could pass.  When she tried to alert the chain of command about the problems and they balked, she became a whistleblower.  This, like almost every other time we hear about brave people who put their careers on the line to alert the public about the failures in our grand system, effectively ended her future in that business.

As a former scientist, this part of the story strikes at the very core of my being.  While the Corps is there to help build the things the military needs, it has become a much bigger entity in the civilian arena.  It is a major provider of political pork as it builds all sorts of water projects for special interests all over the nation.  These projects mean a lot to the people who will benefit from them (contractors, developers, water users) and there is always pressure to get them done.  Fudge the tests.  Stay on schedule regardless of protocols.  Don’t leak information.  Transparency is something we talk about but don’t practice. 

A scientist or engineer is taught to say, “This is what I sought to learn.  These are the methods I used.  These are the results I found.  These are the conclusions the results indicate.  Judge for yourself”.  The method is objective and, dare I say, sacred.  We are not supposed to ignore that.  We are not supposed to dismiss the conclusions because we don’t like them.  We are definitely not supposed to call the scientist a traitor because the results might complicate our objectives.  If you don’t like the results, run your own experiment and prove me wrong.

‘The Big Uneasy’ is an important movie.  I fear it will not be seen by enough people and its message will be ignored because too much money is riding on business as usual.