Corps Threatens, Predicts Insurance Rate Hikes

When did elected officals like the mayors become McGowan's army? They represent the people not just him.

Amen BubbaT. John McGowan and his cohorts think everything that happens is supposed to financially benefit them.They do not give a d-m about the citizens of Hinds and Rankin countys. Flood control is not really their concern. All they want to know is "how much money can I make". They do not care how many homes are flooded. Just let them make more money!! I personally want to commend the three mayors that were there. Maybe they were telling McGowan to take his plan and shove it up his a-s. More power to them!!!

I'm more worried we have McGowan on one side who'll take nothing but his vision, and now we have the Corpse Of Engineers saying it's their way or pay up, losers.

We don't need either of them.

Respect for the natural river and floodplain is the place to start...Taking development away from the river is the wise thing to do. Recreational uses are fine for the floodplain but building in a hazardous area is stupid. Impounding water to prevent a flood is like killing fleas with your fingers without vacuuming and keeping the pets out of the house. Levees and respect are the answers to flooding. The Army Corps of Engineers knows how to do that and the mayors and citizens would do well to let them engineer it...without any other objective besides flood mitigation (control).

Iron, I'm not sure what the alternative is to the Corps providing flood control to Jackson. We sure don't need a bunch of pricey, environmentally shakey development, but we need flood control.

Seems to me that the Corps is tired of the games ... Jackson's been playing footsy with grandiose lakes plans for decades. I'm not a big fan of Corps, don't get me wrong; it's done a lot of damage and made a lot of mistakes. But what's your suggestion?

Flood control is one thing, what we don't need is the Corpse going into one of their "Our Way. Now." attitudes that they're famous for.

What they r famous for is building defenses for the army, doing river navigation, and building floodways and levees to protect farmlands and populations. What mucks things up for them is when levee boards like the one in New Orleans start messing the money and playing political games like doing economic(read political) development. The word in army culture is mission creep. Politicians and levee boards should respect them for what they are --a military engineering group that is politically neutral.

If by neutral, you mean arbitrary, this article suggests you are right. The Corps can choose to certify or decertify the levee system based on whether the levee board does what the Corps wants? What does that say about the integrity of the certification process? It looks more than a little political.

Well, *maybe* the Corps is politically neutral. Like all U.S. military, they serve at the pleasure of the current administration, so its mandate is politically motivated even if the organization is supposed to be neutral. And like all bureaucracies, it makes some bad decisions, too, even without local "mucking." The Corps like to think it can fight mother nature like they fight an opposing army; nature often wins in those battles, with a vengeance.

I don't think anyone is arguing that the Corps is perfect. If they weren't so influenced by politics in the past, I doubt they'd have let the lakes plans linger as long as they have with some straight talk about them.

I really think that some folks are just not paying attention when they stand up for one or both of these plans based on the developers' own public relations. It's a dangerous echo chamber there.

We've wasted enough time on costly pipe dreams. Let's figure out the damn levees and some damn green space to go with them and get on with it.