On time for hurricane season, Bess Casserleigh of WBRZ TV in Baton Rouge features founder Sandy Rosenthal with Levees.org’s Flooded House Museum in New Orleans and also the Ground Zero Museum in Waveland, Mississippi.
Levees Everywhere
Fifty-five percent of the American population lives in counties protected by levees.
This is much higher than originally thought. Levees.org uncovered this important information after filing a request under the Freedom of Information Act in 2009. Prior to our request, the number – stated by experts to our members of Congress – was forty-three percent.
Dan Swenson utilized our data to create this levee county map while he worked for the Times-Picayune in 2010.
Senator Mary Landrieu has used the map in her work on Capitol Hill fighting to fix flood insurance rates.
And most recently, a board member of the Fort Bend Levee District in the Houston Texas area requested a copy of our levee county map. The board member felt the map was a “great presentation of the levee system in the US.”
The map is not likely to differ significantly with the results of the 2010 census. Nonetheless, this week, Levees.org filed a new request under FOIA for the updated information.
Annual guided Levee Breach Bike Tour is Sat April 20
Levees.org will host a guided Levee Breach Bike Tour on Saturday April 20 starting at 10 a.m.
The free tour, guided by founder Sandy Rosenthal, starts at the Flooded House Museum near City Park in the Filmore Gardens neighborhood of New Orleans.
Hear the story by New Orleans Podcasting.
The tour starts at 4918 Warrington Drive. The 75-minute guided tour is a healthy way to learn about the worst civil engineering disaster in U.S. history.
To see Google Map of tour, click here. https://go.levees.org/2HhjkGa
After the Flooded House Museum is seven more points of interest including two breach sites and the Levee Exhibit Hall and Rain Garden. The tour ends with an optional guided tour of the permanent pump station by Gerard Gillen, Director of Operations for SLFPA-East.
To register, CLICK HERE:
