Remember professor Ivor Van Heerden? No? Not surprising; I doubt the name means anything to anyone who doesn’t live in Louisiana or in the New Orleans area. He works at the Louisiana State University Hurricane Centre and warned not simply months but several years before Katrina that the levees were insufficient and likely to blow out if hit by a major storm. Actually, I mis-spoke. He doesn’t work for the Hurricane Centre - he worked for the Hurricane Centre, because he just recently got fired, or as LSU put it, his contract was not renewed. Why?
Well, over a decade ago, the good professor was pointing out that the oil companies had been dredging for pipelines and drilling to the point where they’d removed such massive amounts of soil from under the coast that it couldn’t help but affect the coastal marsh and wetlands which would, in turn, compromise the ability to absorb flooding. Shell Oil alone, (according to the Gulf Restoration Network) has dredged over 8.8 million cubic yards of material since 1983 while laying pipeline. That dredging has caused the loss of 22,624 acres.
H.J. Bosworth, an engineer who advises Levees.org, a non-profit group that monitors hurricane safety, told reporter John Amato about the value of the coastal marsh.
“Takes millions of years to build. Once you carve it up, it’s just like bleeding a wild animal, hang it up, carve some holes in it, and the juice just drains out of it. Saltwater and tide invade. You make (the state) susceptible to flooding from coastal and tidal surges.”

Naturally, there’s another shoe and it didn’t take too long to drop. Directly after LSU rid themselves of the pesky Professor Van Heerden, they received a big fat cheque for $300,000 from a group called “America’s Wetland.” This group, however, did not contribute one thin centime of that filthy lucre. It was merely the conduit for “green-washing” the pelf which was donated in its entirety by … Chevron Oil Corporation. And here’s another surprise: Shell Oil is also a patron of “America’s Wetlands.” Can you believe the coincidence?!

LSU is going to continue its work monitoring the coastline, but will be doing it without the help of their once-resident expert, professor Heerdon. Instead, they will be advised by a committee of experts in coastal and hurricane research consisting of representatives of … wait for it … Chevron and Shell Oil.

And, of course, there’s a second front in this war against Van Heerdon, this time from no other than the Army Corps of Engineers.
Back before Katrina hit, professor Heerden publicly noted that the levees were too short and likely to be overwhelmed by a major storm. This didn’t sit well with the people who built them, the Army Corps of Engineers, who bitched to LSU, inquiring why the professor’s “irresponsible behaviour is tolerated.” Following the ACE’s complaint, LSU actually confiscated the professor’s computer on which he had constructed the computer model that suggested that the levees were too short and that the ACE had further exacerbated the potential for flood disaster by dredging, which appeared to have been done at the request of shipping companies.
The Bush White House, ignoring the research done by Van Heerden, (who had actually warned Washington personally) withheld information from the Louisiana state authorities’ emergency response centre and as a result, evacuation was slowed and over 1500 people drowned.
A class-action law suit has been filed against the Army Corps of Engineers on behalf of the dead of Katrina and all those who lost their homes. The State University of Louisiana forbade professor Van Heerden from testifying as an expert witness.

So has Louisiana learned its lesson? Not if Heerden’s words are anything to go by. Talking with John Amato, he stated categorically if the level of preparedness for another major storm was up to snuff:
“No. Definitely not. If anything, it’s worse than when Katrina hit. We’ve lost a lot of wetlands protection … a section of the flood-wall itself has sunk about nine inches, a result of (hurricane) Gustav.”
“The Army Corp of Engineers won’t talk to me. Like everybody else, they are crossing their fingers and hoping we don’t have a storm.”

Good luck on that one…