May 2006, a FEMA trailer in Lakeview New Orleans adorned with an American flag

Leonard Pitts Jr. of the Miami Herald didn’t even use the word Katrina in his piece about Warren Buffet and New Orleans. Excellent.

Inaccurate Katrina ’shorthand’ is harmful to metro New Orleans’ recovery. Katrina ’shorthand’ is describing the flooding of regional New Orleans as caused by Katrina rather than the truth, that poorly built levees gave way before the water reached design and construction specs.

Had the Army Corps of Engineers given metro New Orleans the levees that Congress authorized, the region would have had little more than some lost shingles, soggy carpets and wet ankles, said Bob Bea co-chair of one of the Independent Levee Investigation Team (ILIT) done after Katrina.

Leonard Pitts Jr. hereby has earned the Levees.org Seal of Approval. Here’s hoping that more reporters follow suit and resist harmful inaccurate Katrina ’shorthand.’

Until the American people see that the flooding of regional New Orleans was a man-made event, we cannot expect them to see that rebuilding makes much sense.

Blog post by Sandy Rosenthal, founder of Levees.org www.levees.org 3-7-10

Sandy Rosenthal, founder of Levees.org

Other panelists include Oliver Houck, professor of law at Tulane and Craig Colten, professor of Anthropology at LSU. The panel discussion will focus on the settlement, rebuilding and future foot print of the City.



PANEL: Know What it Means to be New Orleans: A Geographical, Historical, and Realistic Examination of the Big Easy

WHEN: Friday, March 5 from 3-4:30

WHERE: Audubon Room, Danna Center, main campus of Loyola University, 7214 St. Charles Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70118

Click here for more info about the conference.

l to r. Levees.org advisor Ken McCarthy and 'home' creator Matt Faust (click to enlarge)

‘Home‘, a magical 6-minute movie, artfully captures the spirit of families’ personal loss when the levees failed in August 2005.

Using before and after photographs, Faust, originally from St. Bernard Parish in south Louisiana, assembled a flowing series of almost surreal photo composites. As described by Mike Scott of the New Orleans Times Picayune, “memories meld with post-Katrina reality in a warm, poignant rhythm.”



You can see a shorter version of ‘home’ on the nationally broadcast PBS show Independent Lens from 2/16/10 to 2/22/10. Check here for the schedule.
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/broadcast.html

Or you can get your own copy of ‘home’ in its entirety on DVD. Click this link: http://mattfaust.net/

Be sure to watch or purchase this film which won multiple awards including the Big Easy award, the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival award and more.


LeveesOrg founder Sandy Rosenthal speaks to supporters at Kickoff Rally Jan 21, 2006 in New Orleans. Photo by Stanford Rosenthal

We think his piece was excellent. Among many things, James Carville remarked about the flooding five years ago.

And in late 2009, a federal judge ruled that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ mismanagement at the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet was the cause for flood damage in the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Damages paid to local governments and residents will exceed $1 billion. These judgments validate many locals’ beliefs that the flooding of 80 percent of New Orleans and the billions of dollars in damage were caused more by massive engineering failures than a natural disaster. –James Carville

We would have preferred that Carville said the local ‘assertions were validated’ rather than ‘beliefs.’ Nonetheless, “Fine job!” to Carville who spoke about the future of many things including what may likely happen as a result of the judgments.

U.S. representative Charlie Melancon brought a contingent of people to Washington DC in early December to urge the federal government to settle and provide to the people of St. Bernard and Orleans Parish what they deserve. We hope Melancon is persuasive and adept at using supporting facts.

UPDATE: Many thanks to Editilla of the New Orleans Ladder for bringing to my attention that I neglected to provide a link to the CNN article by James Carville. You can see the CNN article here: http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/02/15/carville.new.orleans/

Seen through the barbed wire around the New Orleans District Army Corps building are supporters at Levees.org's kickoff rally. Photo by Stanford Rosenthal

If you haven’t yet, click here to watch this short important video that exposes the key myths and misunderstandings about the August 2005 flood.

Share it with your family and friends!

Flood victims work together to rebuild New Orleans at Levees.org's kickoff rally on Jan 21, 2006. Photo by Stanford Rosenthal

A new study reported in the current Journal of Criminal Justice study led by sociologist Sean Varano of Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I looked at statistics for robbery, rape, murder, car theft and other violent crimes in Houston, San Antonio and Phoenix before and after Katrina evacuees arrived in those cities.

“If there was any effect, it was a modest one,” said Varano. “Many communities across the United States … also reported increases in violent crime between 2004 and 2006…”. The study notes a 30% increase in aggravated assault in cities such as Baltimore and Detroit.

Click here to see story in USA Today.

Levees.org recently obtained new data from FEMA confirming that more than half the American population lives in counties protected by levees. Levees.org commissioned a researcher (Ezra Boyd) who found that counties with levees had populations that are wealthier and had less unemployment.

You can see the published article here.

John Barry, Sandy Rosenthal and Harry Shearer at Ivor van Heerden's press conference Feb 10, 2010

The announcement came at the Westin Canal Place in New Orleans. There were many speakers and supporters in the room including John Barry, Oliver Houck, Harry Shearer, Marc Levitan, Dr. Mtangulizi Sanyika, and Jed Horne. What they contributed to Ivor’s story ranged from amazing to eye popping to tear jerking.

I hired a video grapher who filmed the entire event, and soon will be releasing their stories, too.

But for now, the important thing is Ivor van Heerden had the courage to represent many others who were intimidated into silence with the threat of losing their jobs or worse. Thank you Ivor van Heerden for doing what is right and at enormous personal expense.

Click here to see and /or download a copy of the lawsuit.
http://levees.org/2/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/van-Heerden-lawsuit.pdf

Click to enlarge

Dr. Ivor van Heerden, his attorneys and several supporters including Sandy Rosenthal, founder of Levees.org will appear in a news conference to discuss the allegations against the university. The news conference will be held at 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, February 10 at the Westin Canal Place, Magnolia Room (3rd Floor), 100 Rue Iberville, New Orleans.

WHO: Dr. Ivor van Heerden, former deputy director of the LSU Hurricane Center, David Marshall, attorney for Dr. van Heerden (Katz, Marshall & Banks, LLP)

WHAT: News conference to announce lawsuit against LSU officials for alleged campaign of harassment and wrongful termination of Dr. van Heerden. The suit will allege that the defendants terminated Dr. van Heerden’s employment at LSU by manipulating the policies and procedures governing faculty appointments.

This short video is a sample of Dr. van Heerden’s candidness about the Army Corps of Engineers’ errors.

Citizens gather next to New Orleans Corps of Engineers building Jan 21, 2006 for Levees.org kickoff rally

John Barry, normally an excellent ambassador for south Louisiana, outdid himself on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow show today.

Barry, author of Rising Tide, did not let himself be distracted by questions that bring focus to the wrong place. In response to Maddow’s well meaning but off track question “Was Katrina more than a 100 storm?” Barry quickly drew attention to the fact that, in New Orleans, the flooding was due to engineering mistakes, not a weather event. Here’s his response:

“…Katrina was a great storm but what flooded New Orleans was actually simply design failures by the Corps of Engineers when the flood wall collapsed on the drainage canals. They weren’t even overtopped; (the water) was 2 feet below the top and they just gave way. That was a design issue. …”

The water was actually 5 feet below the top of the floodwall, but Mr. Barry got his point across. He also shared some extremely interesting information about the Louisiana wetlands:

“…One of the things that gives (New Orleans) a good chance against rising sea level is the fact that this (wetlands) is a live living dynamic system. The marsh is alive. And if you give the marsh sediment from the river and fresh water, it will actually rise as sea level rises. That buffer will continue and come back….”

You can see the entire video here.

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