# Louis Farrakhan says Levees Were 'Blown Up' **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 19, 2005, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435 "2005-09-19T22:30:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/21 "2005-09-19T23:30:36Z")
> [@Wolfian](#): > > Hell, I’d want to go to XXX hospital too. Have you seen the nurses there? 😃 [Well, if you’re into that sort of thing…](http://sportsmed.starwave.com/media/pg2/2002/0808/photo/vin_i.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/22 "2005-09-19T23:38:59Z")
I read somewhere (sorry, no cite) that when the levee went, it did kinda look like a bomb went off. Of course, there was no bomb, that’s just how the levee broke. I bring this up only to point out there was at least some reason behind this rumor, beyond it being made up out of whole cloth. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/23 "2005-09-19T23:43:33Z")
Of course this would explain that video of Harry Connick Jr. digging that crater by the levee and yelling out “tell me when it’s twenty five feet”. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/24 "2005-09-20T00:02:42Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > I read somewhere (sorry, no cite) that when the levee went, it did kinda look like a bomb went off. Of course, there was no bomb, that’s just how the levee broke. That’s just what The Man wants you to think. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![xbuckeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9e8a1a/32.png) [@xbuckeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xbuckeye)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/25 "2005-09-20T00:24:49Z")
Huh! I always wondered what Farrakahn’s job was…apparently he is some sort of civil engineer or tactical weapons expert. I mean, the media wouldn’t take some moron’s word on what happened in NO. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/26 "2005-09-20T00:38:05Z")
I heard on NPR yesterday…or was it Saturday?..it was this weekend, anyway, someone did a report on hurricane conspiracies on the internet. I haven’t actually bothered to hunt these conspiracies down for myself, so I am going to assume that the NPR report was accurate. Apparently there are two prevailing conspiracies: 1. That the hurricane was developed by the army as a weapon, but it got out of control. 2. That the hurricane was developed by the army as a weapon and _accomplished exactly what the army wanted._ MUWAHAHAHA! The insides of these peoples’ heads must be a scary place to live. Louis Farrakhan is repeated a story I have heard was going around in the panicked days immediately after the hurricane among the trapped at the Convention Center. Now, if you’re stuck in a (literal) shithole surrounded by floodwaters and it’s beginning to look like you’ve been abandoned to die, man, it’s hard to blame people for believing pretty much anything. I can’t even imagine how horrible that was. Farrakhan is just crazy, though. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/27 "2005-09-20T00:51:33Z")
Farrakhan vs Pat Robertson in a caged death match!! ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/28 "2005-09-20T00:55:26Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > Farrakhan vs Pat Robertson in a caged death match!! Can we throw in some really out there Jew too? Then everybody wins!\* \*Offer not good for Hindus, Zorastrians, followers of Shinto, and Jedis. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/29 "2005-09-20T01:02:24Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > Yeah, that’s what I’d be doing in the middle of a Cat V hurricane. Planting a bomb underneath a levee. A tactical bomb. You know, the kind that directs water to the black folks’ houses. Not that these rumors are at all credulous, and not that I have a cite, but I’ve always heard busting the levees across the way to relieve the pressure on your own levees is a time-honored tradition. The stories I’ve head about this all involved the Great Mississippi flood of the early 20s, from people whose families lived on the banks for generations. So either it’s an old urban legend revived and retailored, or it has, at some point, happened. Never heard the racially-based varient, though–always the levee breakers were mostly concerned with it being someone else, anyone else! ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/30 "2005-09-20T01:12:21Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > Farrakhan vs Pat Robertson in a caged death match!! I’d pay good money to see that, if they finish each other off, I’d pay extra 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Random](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/57b2e6/32.png) [@Random](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Random)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/31 "2005-09-20T01:14:35Z")
I’ve heard all kinds of bizarre conspiracy theories. Here’s an interesting column from Tribune columnist Eric Zorn, who (for those non-Chicagoans reading this) is probably the most liberal of the resident Tribune opinion writers: [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ericzorn/chi-0509150148sep15,1,2046594.column?coll=chi-news-col](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ericzorn/chi-0509150148sep15,1,2046594.column?coll=chi-news-col) The levee bomb theory is in there, among others. (Along with some comments from some more rational people, and two who seem to think that street violence is the appropriate response.) ---
**Author:** ![Random](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/57b2e6/32.png) [@Random](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Random)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/32 "2005-09-20T01:21:19Z")
Here’s another link to the same column, but with some interesting (and mostly thoughtful) reader comments included. [http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news\_columnists\_ezorn/2005/09/storm\_response\_.html#comments](http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2005/09/storm_response_.html#comments) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/33 "2005-09-20T01:36:36Z")
> [@Manda JO](#): > > So either it’s an old urban legend revived and retailored, or it has, at some point, happened. Never heard the racially-based varient, though–always the levee breakers were mostly concerned with it being someone else, anyone else! There indeed was an intentional levee breach during the [Great Mississippi Flood of 1927](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Flood_of_1927). > [@](#): > > As the flood approached New Orleans, Louisiana 30 tons of dynamite were set off on the levee at Caernarvon, Louisiana and sent 250,000 ft³/s (7,000 m³/s) of water pouring through. This prevented New Orleans from experiencing serious damage but destroyed much of the marsh below the city and flooded all of St. Bernard Parish I understand that a permanent diversion was esablished at Caernarvon in 1991. The dynamite levee rumor resurfaced with Hurricane Betsy in 1965: > [@](#): > > [Gambit Weekly](http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2001-05-15/cover_story.html) > The source of the rumors may lie in the collective memory of the 1927 flood, when the city did authorize the destruction of the levees further up river for the ostensible purpose of preserving the more expensive sectors of the city. > > “Ever since the 1927 flood, if there’s a hurricane scare, people out in St. Bernard start saying they’ve seen someone putting dynamite into the trunk of the car,” says Keith Wagner, the project manager with the Hurricane Protection Program administered by the Army Corps of Engineers. Now we have this piece of crap: > [@](#): > > [Conspiracy Planet](http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=2&contentid=2747) > > Divers inspecting the ruptured levee walls surrounding New Orleans found something that piqued their interest – burn marks on underwater debris chunks from the broken levee wall. > > According to well placed sources, a military forensic specialist determined the burn marks on the cement chunks did, in fact, come from high explosives. I wonder if that’s the same source that Farrakhan has. ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/34 "2005-09-20T02:11:35Z")
So which step in the catastrophe healing process is the paranoid conspiracy theory? Is it 7 or 8? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/35 "2005-09-20T02:29:57Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > And we’re right back to the OP. We know the _name_ of an idiot who thinks that, I was asking what _kind_ of idiot he is. 😉 > [@Airman Doors](#): > > You really shouldn’t Pit Farrakhan. The people you should Pit are the people that believe every word the man says. Without them Farrakhan is just the whackjob that everyone ignores at the bus station. The whackjob that everyone ignores at the bus station who killed Malcolm X, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/45deac/32.png) [@Evil\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_One)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/36 "2005-09-20T02:41:35Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I am starting to think that Louis Farrakhan is a plant by the white man to make the black man look stupid. I think someone should ask him that question to see what happens. Now THAT’S comedy. I would pay money to watch. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/37 "2005-09-20T02:53:07Z")
> [@Wolfian](#): > > Can we throw in some really out there Jew too? Then everybody wins!\* > \*Offer not good for Hindus, Zorastrians, followers of Shinto, and Jedis. No Jedi’s. How about Hobbits? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/38 "2005-09-20T02:56:48Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > Farrakhan vs Pat Robertson in a caged death match!! How much is PPV charging? This is must see TV. Tell you what a a special lead up to the match, Michael Brown in the ring and 500 people from the New Orleans convention center get to throw things at him. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/39 "2005-09-20T03:12:31Z")
> [@jrfranchi](#): > > How much is PPV charging? This is must see TV. > Tell you what a a special lead up to the match, Michael Brown in the ring and 500 people from the New Orleans convention center get to throw things at him. $29.95. But wait!! The opening match will be the guy who cancelled Futurama in a “How many bowling balls can a man get hit with before he collapses into a pile of goo” contest! ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435/40 "2005-09-20T03:17:21Z")
Has Al Sharpton bestowed us with his deep wisdom yet? I’m confident his investigative skills and insight will be of incalculable worth. Heh. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/louis-farrakhan-says-levees-were-blown-up/322435.md?page=3)