How the Titanic disaster is similar to the Levee Breach catastrophe

Thursday, April 14th, 2022

Der Untergang der Titanic

April 15 is the 110th anniversary of the Titanic disaster.

Fifteen hundred plus souls were lost on that day due primarily to human arrogance.

The captain was attempting to complete the maiden journey in record time, despite reports of icebergs. And there were too few lifeboats.

One hundred and ten years later, we still talk about the disaster that changed maritime laws as we know them. No longer are ships allowed to turn off their radios. No longer are ships required to provide lifeboats only for the wealthy. No longer does breaking speed records matter more than lives.

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Fifteen years later, the National Levee Safety Program finally being rolled out

Friday, April 1st, 2022

After the levee failures in New Orleans in 2005, Congress attached levee safety legislation to the Water Resources Development Act. Called in short, the National Levee Safety Act of 2007, the legislation ordered the Secretary of the Army to administer reforms and new programs including the creation of a:

1. national data base of federal and non-federal levees,
2. first-ever nationwide levee safety program,
3. levee safety inspection tool using global positioning technology,
4. sixteen member levee safety committee, and
5. program to inform the public of the risks of living near levees.

These new initiatives were to be completed from 2008 through 2013. Section 9006 of the legislation authorized the appropriation to the Secretary of $20 million for each year.

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Founder Sandy Rosenthal is featured speaker at the New Orleans Book Festival

Thursday, March 10th, 2022

Levees.org founder Sandy Rosenthal will be a guest panelist at the NEW ORLEANS BOOK FESTIVAL at Tulane University.

Rosenthal will join Roberta Brandes Gratz, Lt. Gen Russel Honore, Andy Horowitz and Mark VanLandingham on 3/11.

Tulane University will host its inaugural weekend of the Festival March 10-12. It will be a three-day, in-person literary celebration featuring more than 100 national, regional and local authors, including some of the nation’s most beloved bestsellers. The festival is free and open to the public. A schedule of events will be released in February.

The lineup of Best-Selling Authors includes Levees.org founder Sandy Rosenthal for her debut book, Words Whispered in Water; Why the Levees Broke in Hurricane Katrina (Mango, 2020).

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