Ivor Heerden
Ivor Heerden
asian damage equivalent experience numbers people recognize terms
We need to recognize we may be about to experience our equivalent of the Asian tsunami, in terms of the damage and the numbers of people that can be killed.
due families flooding lost orleans owes society
Most of the flooding of New Orleans was due to man's follies. Society owes those who lost their lives, and the approximately 100,000 families who lost all, an apology.
miles
We're doing repairs on the breaches, but there are many, many, many miles of levee that we don't have any idea of.
leaving orleans undertake vulnerable
If we don't undertake the levee reconstruction and coastal restoration, we're just leaving New Orleans more vulnerable than it was before.
chemicals home identify
Go home and identify all the chemicals in your house. It's a very long list.
bill lobbyists louisiana scientists together
This was a bill put together by lobbyists without any involvement from scientists from Louisiana who know the situation.
bothers died people
What bothers me the most is all the people who've died unnecessarily.
concern focus protecting
My concern was that the focus was not on protecting Louisiana.
lost people plate security step trusted
People trusted the security of the levee system. More than 100,000 people lost everything. The government's at fault, and they should step up to the plate to give people some semblance of dignity.
debris drinking houses increase lines power rapid roads threat
No sewage, no drinking water, contamination, threat of rapid increase in mosquitoes, roads are impassible, downed power lines everywhere, trees, debris from houses in the roads, no way to go shopping, no gas.
happen saying
This is what we've been saying is going to happen for years.
failure failures fairly structural typical walls
This is fairly typical of some of the failures we've seen. These walls underwent catastrophic structural failure.
bottom line unless
The bottom line I got out of this is that unless you were a lobbyist, they did not want you to participate.
informed people warned
They should have been monitoring this and informed people all the way to the top, then they should have warned people.