Faulty Pumps Cause False Actions

Defective flood-control pumps were installed last year in New Orleans. Despite the warnings given that the equipment would fail during a storm, The Army Corps of Engineers still installed the flood-control pumps.

Although the pumps were never put to action in the 2006 hurricane season the Corps and a connected manufacturer are struggling to get the equipment to work properly.

Randy Persica, the Corps resident engineer for New Orleans three major drainage canals, and Col. Jeffrey Bedey, overseer of levee control, think that the installment of the flood-control pumps is very much needed for the state of New Orleans.

Randy Persica said "Let me give you the scenario: You have four months to build something that nobody has ever built before, and if you don't, the city floods and the Corps, which already have a black eye, could basically be dissolved."

Persica is saying with time issues that they were put under alot of pressure and that you have to consider the well being of the people of New Orleans in the situation.

"We didn't have the luxury to go through a two-, three year design and planning phase," Bedey said. "We had to get closure structures in place."


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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070314/ap_on_re_us/katrina_faulty_pumps