Once, a long time ago, during an extended drought in the South East, I met the Corps's commander general. I asked him if they could use their vast water reservoirs to help alleviate the problem. He explained how this would adversely affect their Byzantine obligations to the power grid, which apparently had a higher priority.

I'm not informed or smart enough to criticize his position. But it did shift my perspective on what counts as "a higher priority" for the Corps. And I suspect this is the sort of thing that is at the core of their failures when dealing with the levees.

Then again maybe $14 billion dollars just ain't enough.