The First Ten at New Orleans Times Picayune

The slab and front steps are all that remain of this home in the lower Ninth Ward neighborhood of New Orleans.

Today Levees.org awarded its tenth “Seal of Approval” to a New Orleans Times Picayune reporter.

Levees.org awards a Seal of Approval (SOA) whenever reporters accurately describe the 2005 flooding in metro New Orleans. We believe in journalists and the media, and so we work very hard to help them understand the true root cause of the flooding.

Today, Molly Reid received a SOA for her description in her article about the Duplantier Volunteer Pavillion in City Park.

In describing the flooding she wrote:

“It was volunteer labor that had played a vital role in bringing the garden back to life after 90 percent of the greenery was destroyed by floodwaters from the 2005 levee breaches after Hurricane Katrina.”

Ms. Reid resisted using ‘Katrina shorthand’ or simply blaming a natural disaster for the flooding therefore ignoring that civil engineers and levee failure are the primary cause.

A major city went underwater and we are glad Ms. Reid uses a few extra words and is thus more accurate.

Ms. Reid is the tenth recipient of the Levees.org SOA since we began the program seven months ago. She joins a list that also includes Gwen Filosa, Bill Barrow, Judy Walker, Brett Anderson, John Pope, Doug McCash, Bob Warren, Dave Walker and Keith Spera.

Click here for a recent New York Times piece on the SOA program.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/business/media/26levees.html?ref=us

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