Some rifts in Louisiana are even beyond the power of the Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints to heal.

Katrina whistleblower Ivor van Heerden filed a lawsuit against LSU for firing him, he says, because
Bill Haber/AP Photo

Ivor van Heerden in 2006 stands near a levee wall in Kenner, LA he worried might not hold back water during another big storm.

For instance, Ivor van Heerden, a disaster-science expert who faulted the Army Corps of Engineers for badly constructing levees and thereby contributing to the devastating, post-Hurricane Katrina flooding filed a long expected lawsuit against Louisiana State University which fired him last year.

The lawsuit basically accused the university of wrongly terminating him for pointing out the corps' deficiencies. According to a press release from his law firm that describes van Heerden's allegations against LSU, the university fired the professor because it feared his criticism of the corps would costs the school federal money.

A press release excerpt:

Dr. Ivor van Heerden, a world-recognized disaster science specialist, hurricane researcher, author, and former deputy director of the LSU Hurricane Center, today filed a wrongful termination lawsuit in Louisiana state court alleging that LSU officials waged a campaign of retaliation against him that culminated with the termination of his position with the university.

The whistleblower suit alleges that Dr. van Heerden, an LSU Associate Professor and leader of the state team that conducted a comprehensive investigation into the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, was subjected to a multi-year campaign of retaliatory harassment after he made critical comments concerning the failure of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to safeguard the City of New Orleans.

 

Following the devastating flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Dr. van Heerden led the comprehensive investigation into its cause by the State of Louisiana Forensic Data Gathering Team ("Team Louisiana"). The lawsuit states that Dr. van Heerden found that the Army Corps of Engineers was responsible for a levee design that was a "geotechnical engineering failure." He testified before Congress that "Not to have given the residents the security of proper levees is inexcusable." Dr. van Heerden also authored numerous articles in policy journals and, in 2006, his bestselling book "The Storm," in which he attributed 80% to 90% of the flooding in New Orleans to the Corps' levee design failures.

University officials attempted to silence Dr. van Heerden, the suit alleges, because they believed that his investigation and comments jeopardized LSU's relationship with the federal government and the Army Corps of Engineers. According to the lawsuit, LSU officials called Dr. van Heerden into a meeting in late 2005 and "admonished him for his public criticisms of the Corps" and said he had "jeopardized LSU's prospects for federal funding."

Van Heerden became a go-to source for many journalists in the days leading to Hurricane Katrina and the years following it. But he also had many supporters in New Orleans and beyond who viewed him as a straight shooter willing to tangle with one of the most powerful players in Louisiana, the corps with its huge levee engineering projects that bring a lot of money to the state.