Partnering with the Neighborhood, Levees.org will Build Exhibition and Garden at Breach Site

Wednesday, August 27th, 2014

Today, in partnership with the neighborhood residents of Gentilly in New Orleans, Levees.org unveiled two possible scenarios for a Levee Exhibition and Garden.

The exhibit and garden will be built at the site of one of the most catastrophic breaches on August 29, 2005, the east breach of the London Avenue Canal in the Filmore Gardens neighborhood.

During Katrina, when moderate storm surge was still four feet from the tops of the canal walls, the levees failed and exposed negligent civil engineering on the part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Here is the Associated Press story:


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Tulane University to offer mini-course featuring Levees.org founder

Thursday, August 14th, 2014
Sandy Rosenthal at the unveiling of historic plaque at the breach site of the 17th Street Canal. Photo dated Aug 26, 2010.

Sandy Rosenthal unveils historic plaque at breach site of 17th Street Canal on August 26, 2010.

Updated 13 September, 2014 @ 17:00:31

This coming semester, Tulane University will offer a mini-course featuring Sandy Rosenthal and how she started and built the influential grassroots group, Levees.org.

The mini-course will be offered as part of a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) developed by Dr. Charles Figley, Director of the Tulane Traumatology Institute.

MOOCs are a surging new trend in higher education because they allow virtually unlimited enrollment worldwide.

Traditional online courses charge tuition and limit the enrollment to a few dozen students to ensure interaction with instructors. MOOCs, on the other hand, are free and anyone with an Internet connection can enroll.

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In loving memory of Al Cahall

Sunday, August 3rd, 2014

Alvin Numa Cahall, Jr. (photo dated June 1, 2014)

Anyone who has ever attended a Levees.org event would certainly have noticed Al Cahall’s presence. Al took care of every audiovisual need for the grassroots advocacy group that I founded–with the help of my son–after the 2005 Flood in New Orleans. Time after time, year after year, our events went “without a hitch” due to Al’s dedication to quality.

It started when Al approached me on the evening that Ray Nagin was re-elected Mayor of New Orleans. Al told me his story, that he had lost everything when hurricane storm surge obliterated the levees along the MR-GO and inundated his home to the rooftop. “There were dead crabs on my roof,” he told me. Like many, even though he had flood insurance, the claims payouts plus the little bit of relief he got from the Small Business Administration disaster loans and the Road Home Program went little distance in making him–and his family–whole.

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