[StBernard] report on levees

[Westley Annis]

I was not invited to be on any panel at the National Hurricane Conference,
however I will be meeting with the American Society of Civil Engineers'
Critical Infrastructure Committee consisting of some of the top civil
engineers in the US who are focused on recovery after disasters such as 911
and Katrina/Rita. I will be guiding parts of their tour of the metro area
next week and addressing the group on my thoughts as a civil engineer,a
Katrina "victim", and a community activist with regards to lesson I have
been taught by the largest disaster in US history. 

IPET, the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force, a group
commissioned by the Corps to assess the perfromance of the hurricane
protection system in southeast LA wasn't quite ready to release their public
information regarding the status of levees during the Hurricane Conference,
but I would count on it coming out before June 1. 

By the way, to peer-review the work of IPET, i.e. ensure that it was
indepedent, objective, etc, IPET was watched over by the American Society of
Civil Engineer's External Review Panel, which is comprised of 14 of the
nations' top civil engineers from universities, consulting firms, and
non-Corps of Engineer government agencies, as well as the director of
engineering of ASCE and the deputy executive director of ASCE. You can't get
better oversight than that. Deborah Keller