Originally posted by Yorga
This doesn't make any sense at all. New Orleans was pretty much spared from the brunt of the storm, so why the hell would anyone blow the levee?
There is no strategic reason to blow a levee to save another area. That is absolutely proposterous. I've read some really dumb things on ATS but this
about takes the cake.
[edit on 8-9-2005 by intrepid]

I have no comment on the speculation that the levees were blown. I actually can't accept that at this time. But I do have a comment on your
question about why NO would be allowed to flood.
The night the first levee breaches occured Mayor Nagin, Governor Blanco and FEMA met and a unanimous agreement was reached that the number one
priority was to get the levee fixed to prevent the total flooding of NO. Everybody left this meeting with this agreed. When Nagin woke up the next
morning someone - that some one still not named - unilaterally reversed that decision and sent the helicopters that should have been working to fill
the failed area with anything they could drop in it were sent to rescue people off housetops.
The answer to why this might occur intentionally - the allowing of NO to flood - reduces to insurance pay-outs. Prior to NO flooding the insurance
companies were looking at anywhere between 5 and 20 billion dollars in hurricane damage. And a HUGE percent of that was valid, payable claims on
damage caused by wind, either directly or indirectly (objects, trees, etc. being blown down and on to houses).
The minute NO was allowed to flood, all those valid house and property insurance claims went to near-zero. Because the insurance companies could now
step back and say - OOPS! this is flood damage. And flood insurance doesn't come from private insurance companies - flood damage comes from the
Federal Government.
Not only did the insurance companies get out of the structural and property damage claims, but they got out of the "loss of use" expenses which are
expenses designed to pay your living expenses up to 2 years while you are waiting for your home to become "habitable" again.
And if you think the insurance companies aren't playing this "get out of a jail free card" to its fullest - just start scouring the news coming out
of Louisiana and Mississippi.
One couple with a $300,000 home now has their entire property covered with other people's debris. The waterline was visibly no higher than about 4
feet on the first floor. The roof is gone. The insurance company will only pay them $31,000 for contents (they had $70,000 in content coverage) and
nothing on structural damage, even though it is physically impossible that the 4' water surge blew their roof off their house.
But it gets worse...
Federal flood insurance is capped at $250,000. So for this couple they are automatically at least $50,000 upside down.
But it gets worse...
The PRIVATE home insurance appraiser of the house insurance company that now refuses to pay anything on the damage is the person who now will estimate
the pay-out on the federal flood insurance.
For the above home - which has entire water damage to the lower half of the house, no roof and water damage to the entire top floor of the house (and
the contents), the entire first floor packed with debris from other houses, and debris so dense 360 degrees on the yard to where you can't get to the
house - the appraiser estimated the damage at $115,000.
These people are $185,000 upside down on their house now. Their house as been deemed "uninhabitable" but since the private house insurance company
is bailing due to "flood damage" they don't get the "loss of use" expense pay-out, and they got half the content value they were insured for.
Even though they had 2 boats destroyed that were setting on their property.
You are witnessing the largest personal property loss - and I mean PERMANENT. You are witnessing the largest US taxpayer gouge. You are witnessing
the largest overnight profit probably in the history of the world.
But when the insurance companies go, the banks go...and the economy GOES.
That's why they could have let NO flood.
[edit on 9-16-2005 by Valhall]