I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this, if only because there isn’t much left to say. To quote from the briefing paper given to the City Council summarizing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer findings: “The report includes an overall Unacceptable Rating for the Dallas Floodway System based on the fact that it will not contain a Standard Project Flood (+4).”

In other words, the Trinity River levees won’t withstand a major flood that is considered “reasonably characteristic of the geographical area.” Which we had in 1990.

Or, in other, other words: Oops.

You can check out the news stories here and here. The Corps’ report is here (all 6.67 megabytes of it).  Councilwoman Angela Hunt’s take – “We must fix our levees immediately. We cannot let the toll road continue to delay our levee improvements.” — is here.

The briefing paper, which is fascinating reading for anyone who speaks bureaucrat, insists that all is well, and that levee repairs are part of the city’s grand vision for the Trinity. It blames the Corps for tightening standards, and assures us that the necessary repairs will be made. It doesn’t mention where the money will come from, but Mayor Park Cities has already assured us that there are buckets of cash available.

Buckets? The only buckets around here look like they’ll be used for bailing.