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</td></tr></table><div class="clr"></div><a name="skipnav"></a><h1>Army Corps owns up to ‘catastrophic failure’ </h1><h2>Report on New Orleans levees cites engineering faults</h2><div class="p14"><div id="finalPos"></div><div class="WCCol w300 fR clrR"><div style="padding-bottom:20px;"><script>getCSS("3088867")</script><div class="box_3088867" style="width:300;"><script></script><table width="300" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="boxH_3088867"><tr><td width="1%" class="boxHI_3088867"><img src="/web/20060615102059im_/http://msnbc.msn.com/images/icons/video.gif" width="20" height="14"></td><td width="*" nowrap="true" class="boxHC_3088867"><div class="textSmallBold">NBC VIDEO</div></td></tr></table><table width="300" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="boxB_3088867"><tr valign="top"><td><div style="height:100%;width:100%;background-color:#cccccc;background-image:url('/web/20060615102059im_/http://msnbc.msn.com/images/backgrounds/component_dkgrey.gif');text-align:center;"><a 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vspace="0" hspace="0"></a></a><div class="credit">Nightly News</div></div><div><div class="textHang" style="padding:5px;"><span class="bulletRedSmall">• </span><span class="textMed"><b><a href="javascript:msnvDwd('00','628f9977-18ee-4a15-9efc-608fd4245a48','us','Source_Nightly News','','msnbc','','13088865','Is the Gulf Coast ready?')">Is the Gulf Coast ready?</a></b></span><br><span class="textMed">June 1: NBC correspondents look at how communities and states along the Gulf Coast have prepared for hurricane season.</span></div></div><hr size="1" width="95%" align="center" color="#cccccc" style="clear:all"></td></tr><tr valign="top"><td class="boxBI_3088867"><div class="textHang" style="padding-bottom:3px;"><span class="bulletRedSmall">• </span><span class="headlineList2"><a href="javascript:msnvDwd('00','bbb0fa6e-3b6b-4ce0-95af-b17be933b679','us','Source_Nightly News','','msnbc','','13088862','Will they hold?')">Will they hold?</a></span></div><div class="textHang" style="padding-bottom:3px;"><span class="bulletRedSmall">• </span><span class="headlineList2"><a href="javascript:msnvDwd('00','c6adad9e-e92f-41e7-a0c3-7d6e087a57ee','us','Source_Nightly News','','msnbc','','13088861','Katrina: Manmade disaster')">Katrina: Manmade disaster</a></span></div><div class="textHang" style="padding-bottom:3px;"><span class="bulletRedSmall">• </span><span class="headlineList2"><a href="javascript:msnvDwd('00','795e9055-bf97-4c85-a2af-4ea4d309fa8c','us','News_NBC News','','msnbc','','13085299','Hurricane preparedness')">Hurricane preparedness</a></span></div><div class="textHang" style="padding-bottom:3px;"><span class="bulletRedSmall">• </span><span class="headlineList2"><a href="javascript:msnvDwd('00','d87f0274-a580-46fd-bdcb-36c758fc5b6e','us','News_NBC News','','msnbc','','13085297','Hurricane season begins')">Hurricane season begins</a></span></div><div class="textHang" style="padding-bottom:3px;"><span class="bulletRedSmall">• </span><span class="headlineList2"><a href="javascript:msnvDwd('00','0c0972d3-7245-48c8-a226-6121ea9acf3a','us','News_NBC News','','msnbc','','13085338','Florida preps for hurricane season')">Florida preps for hurricane season</a></span></div><div class="textHang" style="padding-bottom:3px;"><span class="bulletRedSmall">• </span><span class="headlineList2"><a href="javascript:msnvDwd('00','050adfc6-0825-45a2-9a92-3b0c342db71a','us','Source_Today Show','','msnbc','','13077204','FEMA chief discusses hurricane season')">FEMA chief discusses hurricane season</a></span></div></td></tr></table></div></span></div></div><div class="CCol w160 fR clrR"></div><div class="mR165"><div><div class="textMedBlackBold">By Martin Savidge </div><div class="textMedBlack">Correspondent</div><div class="textMedBlack">NBC News</div><div class="textTimestamp"><div id="udtD">Updated: 7:34 p.m. ET June 1, 2006</div><script language="javascript"> function UpdateTimeStamp(pdt) { var n = document.getElementById("udtD"); if(pdt != '' && n && window.DateTime) { var dt = new DateTime(); pdt = dt.T2D(pdt); if(dt.GetTZ(pdt)) {n.innerHTML = dt.D2S(pdt,((''.toLowerCase()=='false')?false:true));} } } UpdateTimeStamp('632848016434630000'); </script></div></div><p class="textBodyBlack"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" align="left" style="padding:5 15 0 0;"><tr><td><script>getCSS("3159408")</script><div class="box_3159408" style="width:102;"><script></script><table width="102" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="boxH_3159408"><tr><td width="1%" class="boxHI_3159408"><img border="0" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20060615102059im_/http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Test-Dev/donna/msnbc10/Launch images/byline_nbcnews.gif" height="20" width="100" vspace="0" hspace="0"></td><td width="*" nowrap="true" class="boxHC_3159408"><div class="textSmallBold"></div></td></tr></table><table width="102" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="boxB_3159408"><tr valign="top"><td><img border="0" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20060615102059im_/http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Bylines/mugs/NBC News/nbc_savidge_martin.thumb.jpg" style="border:1px solid #000000;" vspace="0" hspace="0"></td></tr><tr valign="top"><td class="boxBI_3159408"><div class="textMed"><b>Martin Savidge </b></div><div class="credit">Correspondent</div><hr size="1" width="85%" color="#cccccc" align="center"><div><span class="bulletRedSmall">• </span><span class="textMed"><a href="/web/20060615102059/http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5424900/">Profile</a></span></div></td></tr></table><table width="102" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="boxF_3159408"><tr><td class="boxFI_3159408"><div class="textSmall"></div></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table>NEW ORLEANS - Thursday's admission is a huge about-face for the Army Corps of Engineers. Their report says: "The hurricane protection system in New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana was a system in name only."</p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>The more-than-6,000-page report went on to say the flood defense that engineers built over decades "was compromised by the incompleteness of the system, the inconsistency in levels of protection, and the lack of redundancy."</p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>"This is the first time the Corps has had to stand up and say we had a catastrophic failure of one of our projects," says chief engineer Lt. Gen. Carl Strock.</p><div class="aC"><div class="textSmallGrey w320"><a href="#storyContinued">Story continues below ↓</a><hr noshade size="1"> advertisement <div style="padding:0 10 10 10;"><script>ad_dap(250,300,'&PG=NBCMSN&AP=1089');</script></div><hr noshade size="1"></div></div><a name="storyContinued"></a><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>The $19.7 million review pointed out details of engineering and design failures that led to Katrina's storm surge overwhelming the city's levees and floodwalls.</p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>According to the report, the walls failed when the water pushed the walls enough to create a crack between them and the levee soils, allowing the water to seep below the walls and push them aside.</p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>To independent investigators the report is an epiphany of sorts for Corps leaders that they finally get that the Corps was part of the problem.</p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>"The acknowledgment of human factors and organizational issues by the Corps of Engineers is hugely important," says Professor Ray Seed, a levee expert at the University of California, Berkeley.</p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span><div class="box_brl" style="width:100%;;"><script></script><table width="100%;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="boxH_brl"><tr><td width="*" nowrap="true" class="boxHC_brl"><div class="textSmallBold"> Click for exclusive MSNBC.com content</div></td></tr></table><table width="100%;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="boxB_brl"><tr valign="top"><td class="boxBI_brl"><div class="bigRedLink"><ul><li><a href="/web/20060615102059/http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12978598/">FEMA reforms face big test</a></li><li><a href="/web/20060615102059/http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12875663/">Katrina contractors rake it in as they clean it up</a></li></ul></div></td></tr></table></div></p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>But for New Orleans residents at the start of a hurricane season the study only adds to concern. After all, the Corps just spent nine months and more than $750 million restoring the very system it now criticizes. </p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>"Should we check and recheck everything the Corps does in the future?" asks Sandy Rosenthal, the founder of Levees.org, a grass-roots group formed to hold the the federal government accountable for its failures. "Absolutely!" </p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>The Corps says it has learned from its mistakes — pointing to three giant floodgates placed on Lake Pontchartrain to prevent storm surge from hitting the city again. Those and other improvements, the Corps says, will dramatically reduce risk.</p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>With the memories of last year still haunting so many, all the people of New Orleans can do now is hope the Corps is right.</p><div class="textBodyBlack"><i><em>© 2006 MSNBC Interactive</em></i></div><div class="userRating t1 b f11 c000" style="margin-top:20px;"><nobr> Rate this story </nobr><span style="white-space:wrap;"></span><nobr> Low <span id="URplace"></span> High </nobr></div><span class="t1 f11 c000" style="display:none" id="userRatingTotal"></span><span> </span><span class="bulletRedSmall"> • </span><a href="/web/20060615102059/http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7468311/" class="t1 b f11 c000">View Top Rated stories</a><br><script>moveURCode();</script><br><div class="textMedBlack doThis" style="text-align:center"><span class="dSp"><a href="javascript:printThis('13089236')"><img border="0" class="dIc" 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