What actually devastated New Orleans

Ben Feller’s article, “Hurricanes hold election-year peril for candidates,” stated: “Seven years ago, Katrina’s blow was catastrophic,” [seattletimes.com, Aug. 27].

In fact, Katrina was a wind event and what actually devastated New Orleans was the failure of the federal flood protection mandated by Congress to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps’ poor design, construction and maintenance of the flood prevention caused man-made devastation of New Orleans.

— Elizabeth Reed, New Orleans

An accurate depiction

I was pleased to read “Hurricanes hold election-year peril for candidates,” as it did not contain misleading language regarding the events of Aug. 29, 2005.

The Times did not refer to the federal flooding on that fateful day as caused by a natural disaster. It should be clear to everyone nearly seven years later that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was responsible for the flooding and devastation that wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast and New Orleans.

Thank you again for accurately portraying this incident as anything but a natural disaster.

— Martha Duran, Harahan, La.