Interesting connection by columnist Will Bunch. Funding cuts for upgrading the levees in 2004 as the cost of Iraq continued climbing, the president requested less than 20 percent of what the Army Corps of Engineers wanted for bolstering the walls along Lake Pontchartrain.
According to a Feb. 16, 2004, New Orleans CityBusiness story, that Bunch dug up:

The $750 million Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection project is another major Corps project, which remains about 20% incomplete due to lack of funds, said Al Naomi, project manager. That project consists of building up levees and protection for pumping stations on the east bank of the Mississippi River in Orleans, St. Bernard, St. Charles and Jefferson parishes.
The Lake Pontchartrain project is slated to receive $3.9 million in the president’s 2005 budget. Naomi said about $20 million is needed.
“The longer we wait without funding, the more we sink,” he said. “I’ve got at least six levee construction contracts that need to be done to raise the levee protection back to where it should be (because of settling). Right now I owe my contractors about $5 million. And we’re going to have to pay them interest.”

Of course, it’s too late now to fix that now.