Haha I would love to live in one of those houses!

Regardless of whether the small communities built those to protect eachother or just a rich family trying to save their homes, its still inspiring to see people basically putting two fingers up to the goverment and not relying on them by taking matters into their owns hands and dealing with it.

Thanks to the OP for posting this

Edit:- Imagine how many more homes would of been lost if they hadn't of took matters into their own hands?

I think the most wonderful thing about this incident is that rather than twiddling thier thumbs,the government actualy did something to save New Orleans,rather than screwing it over, yet again.

It's neat to see that some folks have the means to win against the odds. But honestly, these berms should have been built first many years ago, and then homes and garages placed on top. These places have a history, and flooding is part of the natural cycle. It's why farming has always been good along the Mississippi and other Midwestern rivers. (Going back before artificial fertilizing and the such was used heavily. Also the natives in Cahokia had the right idea... Waay way back. What, you thought those mounds were just ceremonial or for burials? At some point many also had earthen or wood structures on top, but those didn't stand the test of time.)

The failure not seen which others may have mentioned... (How many pages is it now?) Why the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers allows houses to be built in a known flood plain in densities greater than the occasional rural farm house, why such houses get gov't insured to repeat the process in another 5 to 10 years, the real estate industry's involvement, and the revolving door politics which may be related. But I guess that's another topic in its own right. (Then again people rarely ever build hurricane/tornado or fireproof where those natural phenomena are likely to hit on a regular basis too. And money is wasted plopping down the same crap again and again, even though we have the smarts and civil-engineering know-how to make such disasters into something much more manageable.)

But back on topic. A thumbs up to those that could pull this off without breaking the bank or having some form of red-tape get in the way. After the blizzards in January and February saturating the ground table, it shouldn't have been too hard to know that this was coming sooner or later.

Too often Americans forget what made us a super power - self reliance. The Missippi floods, Tornados hit Joplin, Katrina, St. Helens, all our disasters all Americans doing for ourselves. No foreign aid, nada. I wish we could just fix the government.

Nice if you live in a Mansion and can afford it I guess.

So explain to me what the difference is between some companies sending in their equipment, building dikes and then having to split the costs (which btw, if you read the article, is money spent in order to keep from losing more money by not being able to operate with their businesses under water, not some altruistic endeavor, the good done to the community is a side effect of them saving their own butts), and the army corp coming in and doing the same, and everyone sharing the costs in that our tax monies pay for this sort of thing?

How are the people in the communities doing anything at all other than reaping the benefits of the work that these companies must do to keep in business? How is this in any way an example of Calvinist work ethics?