When will the levees protecting New Orleans be rebuilt?
President Bush has recently pledged $3.1 billion for fortified hurricane protection. “The levee system will be better and stronger than it has ever been in the history of New Orleans,” said Donald Powell, the top federal official for Hurricane Katrina reconstruction. In early January 2006, Congress gave the Army Corps of Engineers an extra $225 million–eight times the annual appropriation before Hurricane Katrina–to expedite flood control work in Jefferson and Orleans parishes. The US Army Corps of Engineers has the funding for the rebuilding of the levee system and in the process of making repairs. Ms. Susan Jackson, Public Affairs Office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District has stated the following: “By the end of December, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will have completed enough work to provide the city with an interim level of flood protection to get it through the rainy season. At some locations we’ll elevate damaged levees and at other sites we’ll install
