Levees.org featured in New York Times

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

Sandy Rosenthal at Levees.org's kick off rally Jan 22, 2006.

At our kick off rally in January 2006, Levees.org vowed to continue working until the facts about the New Orleans flood became mainstream household knowledge.

And that day is apparently getting closer.

The New York Times’s Brian Stelter was intrigued by Levees.org’s program which awards a “Seal of Approval” when reporters accurately describe the flood of metro New Orleans.

The article focused on how we encourage reporters nationwide to avoid harmful inaccurate ‘Katrina shorthand.’ Levees.org encourages reporters (and public figures too) to describe the 2005 flood as ‘Katrina and the federal levee failures’ rather than just Katrina.

In this fine piece of journalism, Mr. Stelter quoted our reasoning exactly as I said it to him, word for word:

“A major American city went underwater and many people died; we think those few extra words are worth the effort.”

Click here for the New York Times Article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/business/media/26levees.html?ref=us

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The Katrina Myth to be shown at California Conference

Saturday, April 24th, 2010

The Katrina Myth, design by Blake Haney

The Katrina Myth, our 10-minute video on the truth about the New Orleans flooding will be played before the National Conference for Catholic Facility Management (CCFM) in Costa Mesa, California in early May.

CCFM is a national organization of facility and real estate managers for Catholic dioceses and religious orders and meets annually at various locations across the country.

Levees.org is pleased because that is exactly why the video was produced, to help spread the word. It’s especially fitting that the video be played in California. According to Dr. Ray Seed at the University of California Berkeley, the state of California “has about a quarter of the nation’s flood risk, more than Louisiana and the next several states combined.”

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Community input welcome on City of New Orleans’ flood protection

Friday, April 16th, 2010

Mayor-elect Mitch Landrieu’s Transition Team wants to make a targeted effort to solicit comments from the public regarding flood protection and coastal restoration on the Transition Website.

Using the link below, please send your answer to this question: “What should City Hall do to increase the City’s resilience and protections against storm and flood hazards?”

http://www.transitionneworleans.com/blog/TaskForces/2010/04/15/community-meeting-question

A set of recommendations will be presented by the Task Force for Coastal Restoration and Flood Protection on Thursday, April 22nd Time: 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. (Program will start at 1:30 p.m at the Mahalia Jackson Theatre for the Performing Arts 801 N Rampart Street New Orleans.

Three staffers of Levees.org are members of the Task Force on Flood Protection (Stephen Rosenthal, H.J. Bosworth Jr, and Sandy Rosenthal).

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