Gaye Tuchman: Look behind language that attributes calamity to weather

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

Dr. Steve Gorelick

This passage is written by Steve Gorelick, professor of media studies at Hunter College CUNY. While it was written circa the Fifth Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the message is still relevant, and not to be forgotten:

It was a bad hurricane. A horrible and lethal hurricane.

But it was the failure of the levees that caused most of the death and destruction, levees that didn’t magically materialize and blow into town, but levees that – according to a slew of experts along with the informed and unstoppable activists at Levees.org led by Sandy Rosenthal – failed in fifty places due to a combination of poor design, poor construction, too low a safety factor, and levees that simply weren’t high enough.

Read More » Leave a comment

One step closer to presenting our case

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

Corner of Warrington and Mirabeau in Gentilly area of New Orleans near ground zero of London Avenue Canal east side breach. Note the floodwater pushed a home (painted yellow) into the middle of the street. Photo/Steve Nelson 10-20-05

The historian for the Louisiana State Office of Historic Preservation has determined our final draft of our nomination of the levee breaches of New Orleans is ready for a second review by the Washington DC historian for assurance the rules and regulations are followed. In August, we present our case before the State Review Committee.

In preparation for the DC review, we are carefully citing all statements with footnotes. During this time, we have decided to share the closing concluding paragraph with our supporters…..

Read More » 1 Comment

After the Levee Breach, She Never Spoke Again

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

Gladys Simpson, Lakeview resident

The letter below is printed with permission from the writer, Carol Wilkinson who contacted us recently to thank us for our new “Fact Box” that we cycle on our new website.

Carol’s mother lived in the Lakeview neighborhood badly affected by the breach of the 17th Street Canal. I was struck by the final sentence of her note:

So much of the country has suffered devastation by disasters and know how it feels to lose not only a home, but family, neighborhoods and life as we knew it. I wonder how much worse they would feel if they lost their homes by an error from the government they trusted and it could have been prevented.

My mother lived in Lakeview 50 years. She had some dementia. After the levee breach, she never spoke again.

Read More » 3 Comments