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The Katrina Myth video will go home with all St. Bernard Project volunteers

Saturday, December 19th, 2009

Click to enlarge

The Community Center of St Bernard will include Levees.org’s Katrina Myth video in a DVD they will send home with all their visiting volunteers.

The Community Center of St Bernard is located in St. Bernard Parish, directly next door to New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward, at the epicenter of devastation from flooding on August 29, 2005. A community based grassroots 501 (c) (3) nonprofit, it strives to meet the needs of families in St Bernard Parish and surrounding areas. Its mission is to empower residents seeking to rebuild their lives and their communities by providing them with local access to the recovery resources they need in a safe and all-inclusive environment.

R.M. “Iray” Nabatoff of the Community Center of St Bernard told us,

“We feel that the video is an invaluable resource and goes a long way to combat the erroneous information being circulated about what actually transpired here in our region,”

We couldn’t agree more.

Jon Donley: The Corps is one of most powerful machines in the U.S.

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

The following is a comment by Jon Donley, founder and former editior and chief on NOLA.com on my Huffington Post blog dated Dec 14, 2009.

The Corps of Engineers is one of the most powerful machines in the country; it can award and withhold contracts in the hundreds of billions of dollars. The power behind the Great Flood of 1927 was also behind the Katrina Disaster.

As editor-in-chief of NOLA.com, the online news and community platform of New Orleans, I tracked the way Corps agents subverted our life-saving forums and blogs into a tool to twist the facts about what happened in Katrina.

Corps allies worked after 1927 to shield the agency from future liabilities. This is equivalent to a surgeon bearing no liability for negligence.

Fortunately there was a chink in the Corps’ liability armor, as it has now been held responsible for a portion of the destruction.

I expect that its allies are already rushing to close that gap. The Corps’ activities on NOLA.com sparked an investigation called by Sen. Mary Landrieu.

This investigation – conducted by what was effectively an internal review – pinned the blame on an isolated individual.

My data, however, was evidently not considered; in fact, I was never contacted by any investigator, although I was the key source of these accusations.

The investigation was whitewash, and one can only speculate what motivated Sen. Landrieu and the New Orleans news media, to accept the results at face value.

Click here for more on Jon Donley’s role in calling for the Pentagon’s investigation.

Click here for the original Huffington Post blog post by Sandy Rosenthal.

Directions Magazine has published Levees.org’s levee county map

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

Populations in U.S. counties that are protected by levees. Researcher Ezra Boyd created the map using data set provided by FEMA and 2000 census information.

Directions Magazine, a widely read publication for geospatial professionals has published Levees.org’s levee county map!

The eye-popping map is featured in the segment called “Off the Beaten Path” that highlights interesting geographic information systems (GIS) applications.

This great exposure to geospatial professionals across the nation should help to open some more eyes and spur additional efforts to hold the Corps accountable in New Orleans and beyond.

Link to Directions Magazine website.

Link to larger image of levee county map.