Establishing an 8/29 Commission (Sen. Mary Landrieu)

Since the early days following Hurricane Katrina, I have joined with Levees.org in calling for a comprehensive, independent 8/29 commission to take a targeted look at the collapse of the levee system and examine the steps we must to take to prevent another storm from drowning us. That is why I introduced an amendment to Water Resources Development Act to create the necessary congressionally sanctioned investigative commission.

There have been numerous studies about Katrina, without any clear direction of how to prevent a flood control system failure in the future. These studies have not adequately zeroed in on the crucial question of how our levees failed us, and the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force chaired by the Corps itself did not provide the completely independent examination that is required.

An analysis similar to that by the 9-11 Commission is the only route to uncovering how 1,071 lives were lost and 786,372 people were displaced when the federal government’s levee system failed to protect us. While my WRDA amendment was met by partisan objection, I will continue to push for a thorough and independent analysis of the events leading up to August 29, 2005.