Robert Green, Sr., resident of the Lower Ninth Ward at the breach site of the Industrial Canal where a historic plaque will soon be installed and unveiled. Photo/Sandy Rosenthal

After more than a year of partnership and preparation, work has begun on installing a historic plaque at the breach site of the Industrial Canal.

The pole, installed in a cement block on city property, marks where a historic plaque will be unveiled on Monday August 24 at 6:00 p.m.

An unveiling event will mark the 10th anniversary of the worst civil engineering disaster in the history of the United States.

On August 29, 2005, federal levees designed and built by the Army Corps of Engineers failed during Hurricane Katrina.

The unveiling ceremony will take place at the T-intersection of Jourdan Avenue and N. Johnson Street, New Orleans.

For the past ten years, there has been nothing at the site to commemorate the breach event.

The failure of the canal wall decimated a historic primarily African-American neighborhood of homeowners in the Lower Ninth Ward. Yet there has been nothing to show for that beyond a repaired floodwall and empty lots.

Together, the residents of this historic neighborhood and Levees.org will unveil a historic plaque–for everyone to see–that will be both a commemoration of a pivotal moment in history and a memorial to those lost.

The ceremony, which is public and open to everyone, will include local artists Chuck Perkins, Al “Carnvial Time” Johnson and more. A large tent will provide shade.

This is Levees.org’s third historic plaque installed on city property at levee breach sites. In August 2011, the group installed a plaque at the Lakeview neighborhood at the site of the 17th Street Canal breach. One year later, Levees.org installed a plaque in the Gentilly neighborhood at the site of the London Avenue Canal east breach.