Reply #29: The problem started before the levees were even built

[imported_dem]

http://www.saveourwetlands.org/weaksoil.html

Original soil tests and design documents for the 17th Street Canal flood wall show layers of weak soil under the wall's steel base that investigators believe gave way during Hurricane Katrina, likely causing the breach that flooded large portions of the city.

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The borings for the 17th Street Canal were done in 1981 by the Eustis Engineering, a Metairie firm. Those results and other documents were contained in case files from a dispute between the corps and the contractor that built the wall, A.E. Pittman Co. Those files were obtained by The Times-Picayune.