Residents along 17th Street Canal back in court

Friday, February 11th, 2011

Sad mementos at base of Levees.org's Historic Plaque at 17th Street Canal breach site

Today, I received this press release from Mr. Roy Arrigo, spokesperson for the 17th Street Canal Coalition, a group of citizens residing along the 17th Street Canal floodwall. The group asks to be reasonably and fairly treated for the taking of their land. They are back in court, but this time the group is also filing a petition against the U.S. Army Crops of Engineers.

Homeowners along Bellaire Drive in New Orleans calling themselves the 17th Street Canal Coalition returned to Judge Kern Reese’s Civil District Court in Orleans Parish on Thursday Feb. 10, to file an amended petition against the Orleans Levee District and the South East Louisiana Flood Protection Authority (SELFPA).  This amended petition adds the United States Army Corps of Engineers as a defendant. 

Since 2007 these homeowners have continuously attended SELFPA levee board meetings pleading with this board for fair treatment regarding the taking of their property.  The 17th Street Canal Coalition is disappointed that these boards and the Corps have refused to sit with them to work out a solution that would be satisfactory to both sides and it is through this petition filed by the homeowners that they hope to obtain that fair treatment.  Additional questions can be answered by contacting Mr. Randy Smith, at Smith and Fawer LLC., attorney for the 17th Street Canal Coalition at 504 525 2200

Click here for Petition.
https://levees.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/20110210155932904a.pdf

In this video, you can see a contractor hired by the Corps of Engineers placing a ‘No trespassing’ sign on a fence the contractor recently erected preventing the homeowner from accessing his own property.

Read More » Leave a comment

Gambit Weekly throws the Brick at the New York Times

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

Just under a year ago, I ran into Clancy Dubos (owner of Gambit Weekly) at the Green School Edible Garden in New Orleans. When we parted, Mr. Dubos assured me that he would issue a style alert to all Gambit Weekly reporters when referencing the August 2005 flooding.

It was Mr. Dubos’s intention to request that Gambit Weekly reporters use the term ‘federal flood’ to describe the flooding devastation on August 29, 2005. A week later, he wrote me and told me “already done.”

So we were pleased – but not surprised – that Gambit Weekly had weighed in on our Petition to the The New York Times urging the paper to follow the advice of its own ombudsman – that is, to be as specific as possible when referencing the metro New Orleans flooding.

The segment below appeared in Gambit Weekly’s “Heroes and Zeroes” feature on page 11.

The New York Times missed the mark when the paper responded to a Levees.org petition requesting a correction to a December 2010 story, which had ascribed the 2005 floods to “Hurricane Katrina” and not the federal levee failures. Senior editor Don Hecker wrote that the error was cited “out of context.” Those are the sort of weasel words a newspaper is supposed to debunk, not use to defend its own mistakes.

For this, Gambit Weekly threw a “brick” at the The New York Times.

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/gambit/bouquets-and-brickbats/Content?oid=1558913

Read More » Leave a comment

Levees.org Retains Expert for Historic Listing of Breach Sites

Monday, February 7th, 2011

Press Conference in Lower Ninth Ward where Levees.org announced nomination of Breach Sites, Aug 4, 2010. Photo/Stanford Rosenthal

We had some updates to report regarding our nomination of two levee breach sites to the prestigious National Register of Historic Places. We offered the Associated Press an exclusive to the story, and the news outlet accepted. Here is the article by Kevin McGill posted a few hours ago.

http://blog.al.com/wire/2011/02/hurricane_katrina_levees_group.html

The most important update was our retainment of a federal expert, Dr. Mark Barnes with 35 years of experience with the National Park Service. We hope to make our case before a federal review committee on April 7, 2011 in Leesville, LA. If approved, the nominations would then be listed on a Federal Register and there would be a 45 day comment period.

Soon we shall be commemorating a historic event of national significance that people all over the world saw on TV.

Read More » 1 Comment