The Keeper’s Response to our Appeal and our Assessment

Friday, June 15th, 2012

As part of a bike tour, Sandy Rosenthal discusses the breach of the 17th Street Canal on May 6, 2012. Photo/Hubie Vigreux

When the Army Corps of Engineers failed to respond to a request for comment on our nomination of two major levee breach sites to the National Register of Historic Places, Levees.org elected to appeal to the official arbiter for such procedural breakdowns, the Keeper of the Register in Washington DC.

The interim Keeper, Ms. Carol Shull responded to our appeal today in a three-page letter. She described what she considered deficiencies in our nomination.

She wrote that she didn’t believe the breach sites of the 17th Street Canal and the east side north breach of the Industrial Canal was of “exceptional importance.”  We find this odd because we have worked under the guidance of her staff since October of 2010.  They, as well as the Louisiana State Office of Historic Preservation, did believe the levee breach sites met the criteria for exceptional historical significance.

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Levees.org Rolls Out Self-guided Levee Disaster Bike Tour

Monday, June 11th, 2012

Levees.org is pleased to roll out a Self Guided Levee Disaster Bike Tour of three major levee breach sites in New Orleans’s Main Basin.

Starting at City Park, cyclists ride through the Park and along Bayou St. John to the first stop – the east breach of the London Avenue Canal.  Traveling alongside the Canal, the next stop is the west breach of the London Canal. Then cyclists ride along Lake Pontchartrain to the 17th Street Canal breach site before heading  back to City Park.  The route is designed mostly on marked bike routes.  Cyclists can view both the breach sites and the affected neighborhoods.

To assist bikers, Levees.org has created this interactive Google map (below).


View Levee Disaster Bike Tour (self-guided) in a larger map

…and also a downloadable pdf.  Click on LINK below to download.

DOWNLOADABLE PDF MAP.

Now, at any time, anyone can view three breach sites – and the affected neighborhoods – of a disaster so catastrophic that the whole world watched it on TV.

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Times Picayune reporter to receive Levees.org Seal of Approval

Monday, June 4th, 2012

Opening sentence of Jaquetta White's story earns the Times Picayune reporter the Levees.org Seal of Approval

Finding that it is easier to catch flies with honey, Levees.org routinely awards Seals of Approval to journalists and reporters who resist fast easy but wrong Katrina ‘shorthand’ and who accurately describe the flood catastrophe of August 2005.

Today, Jaquetta White  of the New Orleans Times Picayune will receive an SOA for her accurate depiction of the Great New Orleans Flood in a Sunday story.

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