Why are the Levees failing???

Question

I'm starting to wonder where are tax payer money goes to..........it is supposed to be used in part for care of our bridges, roads, hospitals and education but I see none of that. How in the world do Levees fail if they were built for the purpose of flood prevention. I'm not understanding why all this money comes out of my check and nothing useful gets done with it. It seems to me that we have a bunch of irresponsible elected officials who don't care about America. What's going on and how do we fix these problems.

Answer 1

first off most of the levees weren't designed for this amount of water...they were built for "normal" flood levels...shortsighted I know, but that's the way it is(was)....we've had such floods before, just not in recent history for these areas...in areas like this we've tended to lean toward a "management by crisis" type people.

Answer 2

You are an Einstein, aren't you?

Answer 3

They did not build the Levees right. They should have planted Buffalo Grass which has a 100 foot deep tap root so the soil could not wash away on the far side of the levees.

Answer 4

I believe that the levees were not built to last as long as they have. Most were built in the 30s and were meant to last maybe 20 years with the idea that stronger levees would be built. As is most things with the government, so long as the seem to be working, they're ignored until there is a catastrophe.

Answer 5

ok.  you need to do a bit more research first.  the levees were built to hold back a specific amount of water, they broke when that level went above what they were engineered for.  

Before jumping all over the federal government on bridges, roads, hospitals, etc. your LOCAL government might be the one at fault for not fixing these things that fall under their jurisdiction.  The budgets for government are available for you to view and review.  just search for it or call to the government offices.  take a look and see where your money is going in the budget and you will see how its allocated.

Answer 6

They are old and have not been updated or maintained properly. Nor were they designed for that much water.

Man vs Mother nature      Man will lose every time

Answer 7

Almost none of it goes to Israel;  much more of it goes to Big Oil companies in subsidies.  More goes for military spending (We spend more than the rest of the world - combined!), the interest on the national debt ($10,000,000,000 (ten trillion USD and climbing), and almost nothing is left over for schools, hospitals, and, oh yeah, our roads, dams, and other parts of infrastucture.

Bush gave all the road money to the military for misadventures.  The rest went to China for our national debt.

Answer 8

Mother nature is a tough lady and a simple pile of dirt is not going to stop water. Water carved the Grand Canyon and we think we can build a wall to keep it in check.

Wow! A thumbs down for saying that the reason the levees are failing is because when it comes to man vs. nature, nature is going to win.

Answer 9

the U.S. infrastructure (roadways, bridges, and the like) are in serious need of repair, they haven't been kept up and are severely underfunded, it would cost a fortune to repair them and this is why even with gas price increases some states have increased gas taxes even higher than price adjusted taxes would have been

Answer 10

How about 26 ft of water.

Answer 11

It's because Bill Clinton got a ******** and Obama is a Muslim -- Oh wait. The Conservative BS lock on my computer was on. Let me start again. Yes I think it could be caused by the fact that we are spending a few billion a month on Bush's Iraqi wet dream and making sure that his supporters get their share while cutting their taxes instead of spending money on projects that would benefit the rest of us. How do we fix it? We vote for people who understand the true function of government...providing for the common good...and voting out the corporate-owned government we now have in place.

Answer 12

Most of the failed levees are just sand bunkers. They were not built or designed to hold back the level of water they are facing. When water goes over the top of them, they just wash away.

It's a matter of money. They could build stronger levees but to build them to cover hundreds of thousands of miles of river banks around the country would probably cost trillions of dollars.

I remember hearing a guy in the army corp of engineers talk about control of the Mississippi river. He said the engineering wasn't the problem, the money was. He said if they had enough money they could reroute the Mississippi river though downtown Los Angeles if they wanted to.