Sandy Rosenthal's Blog, page 10

My Perspective Five Days After Hurricane Ida

For those wanting to help the victims of Hurricane Ida, click here.

Today, it’s five days after Hurricane Ida, and I am compelled to offer up some stark differences between the outcome of this storm and the storm exactly sixteen years ago.

Five days after Hurricane Katrina exposed design flaws in the New Orleans, these were the conditions:

Between 12,000 and 15,000 survivors were at the Superdome and the Convention Center.The astrodome in Houston was filled to bursting with evacuees.Untold numbers of people were still waiting on their rooftops.Families were torn apart and remain so for months, even years.News anchor Garland Robinette raged at the indignities.Mayor Ray Nagin went on WWLAM radio and said “Don’t tell me 40,000 people are coming here. They’re not here!”Flabbergasting horrible rumors were swirling in a city completely cut off from the rest of the world due to FEMA’s errors.40,000 – 50,000 families needed to find a place for their kids to go to school.1,000 troops finally arrived under the direction of Lt. Gen Russel Honore

These were the condition five days after H. Katrina’s surge triggered failures in poorly designed levees.

In contrast, a top story today, five days after H. Ida on WWLTV is that “historic oak trees at the Oak Alley Plantation in St. James parish are damaged. I love Louisiana live oaks as much as the next person. But this very well illustrates the stark difference between the two August 29th events sixteen years apart.

We know now that as many as nine souls lost their lives during H. Ida. In contrast, sixteen years ago, it would be many months before the death count could even begin to be verified, a number of over 1,500.

My heart goes out to all those affected by Hurricane Ida and the resulting power outage in Louisiana. This is a disaster.

Hurricane Katrina and the exposed design flaws in the New Orleans outfall canal levees was a bona fide catastrophe.

For those wanting to help the victims of Hurricane Ida, click here.

Sandy Rosenthal, founder of Levees.org
Author, Words Whispered in Water (Mango, 2020)

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Hurricane Ida

The path of Hurricane Ida

On August 29, 2016, Levees.org reached out to its national supporter base of which two thirds is outside of Greater New Orleans. We could do little more than offer warm thoughts and prayers to those in Hurricane Ida’s path.

Yesterday and today, we’ve been closely monitoring the news reporting on the Army Corps of Engineers’ new levee protection system in New Orleans.

News stories no longer blame the people of New Orleans, or the pre-Katrina levee board commissioners, for the levee catastrophe 16 years ago. That victim blaming has ended and that’s good. That progress.

However, while news reports have announced that the Army Corps’ new system had held, only one has focused attention on the reason the Army Corps’ system failed 16 years ago.

That one news house, The Washington Post, used a quote from the founder of Levees.org which drew attention to the “horrific human cost” of the new system––the lives of over 1500 people sixteen years ago when the Army Corps levees failed during Hurricane Katrina.

The unspeakable human cost must not be forgotten, especially in this age of hotels and condos falling to the ground. Levees.org’s work is not over.

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Levees.org to host Press Conference at 16th Anniversary of New Orleans’ Levee Breach Event

Levees.org lead researcher H.J. Bosworth Jr speaks at plaque unveiling at 5th anniversary of levee breach event in New Orleans. Photo credit: Pat Garin 8/23/2010

WHAT: Outdoor press conference
WHEN: 10:00 a.m. August 25, 2021 (close to 16th anniversary of the worst civil engineering disaster in US history)
WHERE: 5000 Warrington Drive, New Orleans (site of Levee Exhibit Hall)

Levees.org has, in writing, recent remarks made by the incoming president of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) that are alarming. 

The remarks made by the incoming ASCE president, who is currently chair of the Civil Engineering Dept at the University of Mississippi, seem to indicate he does not know why the levees broke in Hurricane Katrina. He feels the US Army Corps of Engineers was 100% not at fault and that blame belongs to the state of Louisiana and to Congress.

Levees.org considers this an example of a larger problem, namely that 1) engineering professors in the US are not aware of the true cause of the worst civil engineering disaster in US history, and 2) civil engineering students are not being taught that civil engineering mistakes can be deadly. 

Fact: Nearly two-thirds of our nations’ population lives by levees.
Fact: The ASCE issues an Infrastructure Report Card for each state every four years.

On Wednesday, August 25 at 10:00 a.m., Levees.org will reveal the remarks, and will also announce its plan to address this insidious and alarming problem.

There will be a TENT for shade and a PODIUM for microphones. The public is welcome to attend.

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Founder Rosenthal’s Book is Finalist for Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award

Founder Sandy Rosenthal is one of three finalists for the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award in the Non-Fiction category for her book Words Whispered in Water.

The award is given to authors of debut books that incorporate thriller, suspense and mystery.

The winner will be kept secret until the awards banquet taking place at the 2021 Killer Nashville’s 15th Annual Writers Conference August 19-22. Rosenthal plans to attend.

The Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference was created in 2006 by author/filmmaker Clay Stafford in an effort to bring together forensic experts, writers, and fans of crime and thriller literature.

For more about the conference, click here.

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Founder Rosenthal’s book garners 5-star review from Readers Favorite

On June 28, 2021, Readers Favorite released a review of founder Sandy Rosenthal’s debut book, Words Whispered in Water: Why the Levees Broke in Hurricane Katrina.

Here is an excerpt of the review written by Francis Mont for Readers Favorite.

“The information had been mostly unknown to me and is shockingly convincing about the book’s main theme: powerful players in the drama used every dirty trick to misdirect blame from themselves, even going to the length of blaming the victims. In the era of post-truth social media hysteria, I thoroughly enjoyed reading an objectively reported investigation into a tragedy that should never have happened….”

On its website, Readers Favorite is described as “owned and operated by authors for authors. Our staff and nearly all our 1,000+ reviewers are authors who have come together to provide fellow authors with a valuable set of resources to help them succeed.”

Words Whispered in Water is about how Rosenthal led an investigative team that exposed the true culprit in the levee failures in New Orleans in August 2005, and how the federal agency spent millions trying to suppress the reality.

For the full review, click here:

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Founder Rosenthal to be featured author at 2021 New Orleans Book Festival

Levees.org Founder Sandy Rosenthal will be a featured guest and speaker at the 2021 New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University’s uptown campus.

Rosenthal is selected to present on her debut book “Words Whispered in Water: Why the Levees Broke in Hurricane Katrina.”

A signed letter from co-chairs Cheryl Landrieu and Walter Isaacson states:

“We would like to invite you to join us as a participating author at this exciting event… Book signings will be scheduled after your presentation… Author information will also be prominently featured on our website. We would be honored to count you among our festival authors in 2021.”

The 2021 New Orleans Book Festival will feature a multi-day literary celebration including prominent national authors participating in readings, moderated panel discussions and keynote lectures. Festival planners plan to engage the local community in many specially curated events that will elevate New Orleans as a convener of important literary works. The Festival will also include a full day of programming geared specifically to New Orleans children and their families, to bring awareness and resources that will impact the advancement of literacy. Books will be sold throughout the festival by the university bookstore, Barnes & Noble College, as well as by independent booksellers.

For more about the 2021 New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University’s uptown campus, click here.

For the full letter to Rosenthal from the Festival co-chairs, click here.

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Gen Russel Honore to appear in maiden episode of BEAT THE BIG GUYS

After eight month of preparation, founder Sandy Rosenthal launched her first podcast episode of Beat the Big Guys on June 21, 2021.

The show is designed to help citizens-at-large who see a problem in their town or community but may feel helpless to do anything about it.

Each episode will feature major celebrities and experts, where Rosenthal will provide free and inexpensive tools to help her listeners Beat the Big Guys.

Rosenthal’s first guest is Lt Gen Russel Honore, who brought order to New Orleans when the Army Corps of Engineers’ levees broke in August of 2005. General Honore was brought back into the spotlight at the first of this year. One week after the January 6 Capitol insurrection, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed the General to review the security and infrastructure at the historic building. Honoré and his team finished the review in March. Now, they are urging Congress to pass emergency legislation to fund recommended security enhancements.

Find Beat the Big Guys wherever you find you favorite podcasts. Or you can click here.

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Founder Sandy Rosenthal to launch podcast

On June 21, 2021, Levees.org founder Sandy Rosenthal will launch the BEAT THE BIG GUYS podcast.

Podcast description: Do you see a problem in your community or town, but feel there’s nothing you can do? Find out just how much power you have – right now – from Sandy Rosenthal who started out with no special training, stood up to a mammoth federal agency, and won. In every episode, Sandy, author of the best-selling book “Words Whispered in Water” will provide tools that you can use right now to Beat the Big Guys.

Rosenthal’s first guest will be Lt Gen Russel Honore.

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The Sinking Louisiana Coast Was Predicted 124 Years Ago

On page 354, James Corthell’s prediction can be viewed.

On this, the eve of Hurricane Season, it’s interesting to note that the sinking of the Louisiana coastal delta was predicted 124 years ago.

The Army Corps of Engineers has often stated in its modern reports on coastal Louisiana that it did not discover coastal land loss until the 1970’s.

This claim is hard to accept in light of a remarkably accurate prediction in December 1897 and published in the National Geographic (on page 354) by Elmer L. Corthell, civil engineer.

His prediction was endorsed by James Eads, builder of the Mississippi River jetties.

This demonstrates the Corps’ and the federal government’s culpability for coastal land loss and by extension for the flood risk in New Orleans.

“…The geology of the delta of the Mississippi is an interesting local study. The effect of withholding by the levees from the great areas of the delta of the annual contribution of sedimentary matters, and the steady, though slow, subsidence of these areas, is one which should be taken into account in deciding the important question of how to protect the people from the flood waters of the river.

No doubt the great benefit to the present and two or three flowing generations accruing from a complete system of absolutely protective levees, excluding the flood waters entirely from the great areas of the lower delta country, far outweighs the disadvantages to future generations from the subsidence of the Gulf delta lands below the level of the sea and their gradual abandonment due to this cause.

While it would be generally conceded that the present generation should not be selfish, yet is is safe to say that the development of the delta county during the twentieth century by a fully protective levee system, at whatever cost to the riparian states and the Federal Government, will be so remarkable that people of the whole U.S. can well afford, when the time comes, to build a protective levee against the Gulf waters, as the city of new Orleans has done on a small scale against the sea waters of Lake Pontchartrain…”

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Levees.org leaders featured in The Advocate

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H.J. Bosworth Jr, and Sandy Rosenthal in file photo from August 2008

The Advocate recently featured Levees.org’s lead researcher H.J. Bosworth and founder Sandy Rosenthal’s letter.

In the letter, Bosworth and Rosenthal object to a bill proposed by Jerome “Zee” Zeringue R-Houma.

The bill require the parishes of Orleans, Jefferson and St. Bernard to shoulder the lion’s share of the cost of the post-Katrina improvements to the levee system that failed on August 29, 2005 due to the Army Corps of Engineers’ design mistakes.

Bosworth and Rosenthal point out several reasons that this is both unwarranted and unfair.

For the full letter, click here.

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