Levees.org featured on CNN

Friday, January 27th, 2012

CNN featured Levees.org's nomination of levee breach sites for national historic recognition

Today CNN ran a story about Levees.org’s 18-month quest to list two major levee breach sites to the National Register of Historic Places.

The story was featured all day today on National and International News.

We believe CNN’s Joe Sutton did a good job.

But we note with interest that many readers left comments complaining of the expense to taxpayers for recognizing the worst civil engineering disaster in U.S. history.

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Master plan for Louisiana Coast public meeting today at UNO

Monday, January 23rd, 2012

Red indicates predicted land change along the Louisiana coast over the next 50 years if we do nothing. Photo/CPRA

The Master Plan for the future of the Louisiana coast produced by the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) is on view today at UNO from 1-7:30p.

Lindy Boggs Conference Center Auditorium
2045 Lakeshore Drive, New Orleans, LA
1-5:30 Tour Master Plan
5:30 – 7:30 Public Hearings

Everyone should review the draft blueprint. Stop by between 1:00-5:30pm to explore the exhibits in the open house and learn about project selection, flooding risks, how Louisiana’s landscape is changing, and more. You can tell them your thoughts about the draft plan any time during the day or stay for the public hearing starting at 5:30p.

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The Urban Legends of Katrina

Friday, January 20th, 2012

Sad mementos at base of Historic Plaque at 17th Street Canal breach site. Photo/Roy Arrigo

There is a persistent popular urban legend that prior to Katrina, the Army Corps of Engineers had wanted to build peripheral barriers around the city of New Orleans, but local agencies blocked the corps and forced it to build what it considered ‘inferior flood protection.’

This misinformation, promulgated by senior corps officials, and printed in major media from 2005 – 2007 was unsupported by data (e.g. memos, circulars, legal briefs, letters, articles, meeting minutes, etc).

Levees.org has looked for five years for the supporting data and has not found it. At the date of this printing, the Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District, the folks with the most to gain from location of this data, also has been unable to locate it.

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