Sandy Rosenthal's Blog, page 9

Fifteen years later, the National Levee Safety Program finally being rolled out

After the levee failures in New Orleans in 2005, Congress made three attempts to attach levee safety legislation to the Water Resources Development Act. The third attempt, which was successful, was H.R. 1495 and was called in short, the National Levee Safety Act of 2007. The legislation ordered the Secretary of the Army to administer several reforms and new programs. These included the creation of a:

1. national data base of federal and non-federal levees,
2. first-ever nationwide levee safety program,
3. levee safety inspection tool using global positioning technology,
4. sixteen member levee safety committee, and
5. program to inform the public of the risks of living near levees.

These new initiatives were to be completed over the course of five years, from fiscal years 2008 through 2013. Section 9006 of the legislation authorized the appropriation to the Secretary of $20,000,000.00 for each year.

The new legislation directly affects the nearly two thirds of the American population protected by levees – more than 201 million people.

It’s our understanding that items 1, 3, 4 and 5 were implemented in approximately 2008 and 2009. But we see that item #2, the levee safety program is just now getting launched. We understand that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are now launching the National Levee Safety Program.

It’s our understanding that local levee district personnel can raise concerns and make comments regarding levees and floodwalls built by the USACE, and that these comments are recorded and stored digitally by the USACE in a data base nicknamed “DrCHK.” We also understand that this information is not publicly available. We believe an organization other than the USACE should be the organization that collects, records and stores this information.

It is our hope is that the USACE will adhere to its own directive to alert the public when it finds that levee maintenance by any local levee boards in any state has been unacceptable or minimally acceptable. In 2018, our organization––Levees.org––had to file a request under FOIA for levee ratings that should have been readily and easily accessible to the public.

We hope that the first ever National Levee Safety Program has a board of people that are not federally employed––or federally employed in the past––including but not limited to the US Army Corps of Engineers, the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center or Federal Emergency Management Agency. This board needs to be driven by people who are not federal employees and therefore should have only one or two federal employees.

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Founder Sandy Rosenthal is featured speaker at the New Orleans Book Festival

Levees.org founder Sandy Rosenthal will be a guest panelist at the NEW ORLEANS BOOK FESTIVAL at Tulane University.

Rosenthal will join Roberta Brandes Gratz, Lt. Gen Russel Honore, Andy Horowitz and Mark VanLandingham on 3/11.

Tulane University will host its inaugural weekend of the Festival March 10-12. It will be a three-day, in-person literary celebration featuring more than 100 national, regional and local authors, including some of the nation’s most beloved bestsellers. The festival is free and open to the public. A schedule of events will be released in February.

The lineup of Best-Selling Authors includes Levees.org founder Sandy Rosenthal for her debut book, Words Whispered in Water; Why the Levees Broke in Hurricane Katrina (Mango, 2020).

According to its press release, the new, major literary event for the Crescent City, whose debut was postponed by the pandemic, will feature panel discussions, moderated conversations, keynote lectures, book fairs, family programming and workshops. Each day will include at least one major plenary session, which will feature a leading author. The event will also provide a forum for media outlets, authors and readers to network and collaborate in one of the world’s most vibrant and culturally diverse cities.

Learn more about the New Orleans Book Festival! 

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Founder Rosenthal to be featured in local TV show

On Thursday March 10, founder Sandy Rosenthal will be featured in a local television show.

The episode, which was filmed at Levees.org’s Levee Exhibit Hall and Garden, is part of a series called My Cheap Date. Rosenthal speaks with a couple at 5000 Warrington Drive in the Fillmore Gardens neighborhood of New Orleans.

The premise of the series is that “A great date doesn’t have to break the bank.” The episode can be downloaded here.

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Founder Rosenthal will be panelist at New Orleans Book Festival

Levees.org founder Sandy Rosenthal will be a guest panelist at the NEW ORLEANS BOOK FESTIVAL.

Rosenthal will join Roberta Brandes Gratz, @ltgrusselhonore, @andydhorowitz and Mark VanLandingham on 3/11!

Tulane University will host its inaugural weekend of the 2022 New Orleans Book Festival on March 10-12. It will be a three-day, in-person literary celebration featuring more than 100 national, regional and local authors, including some of the nation’s most beloved bestsellers. The festival is free and open to the public. A schedule of events will be released in February.

The lineup of Best-Selling Authors includes Levees.org founder Sandy Rosenthal for her debut book, Words Whispered in Water; Why the Levees Broke in Hurricane Katrina (Mango, 2020).

According to its press release, the new, major literary event for the Crescent City, whose debut was postponed by the pandemic, will feature panel discussions, moderated conversations, keynote lectures, book fairs, family programming and workshops. Each day will include at least one major plenary session, which will feature a leading author. The event will also provide a forum for media outlets, authors and readers to network and collaborate in one of the world’s most vibrant and culturally diverse cities.

Learn more about the New Orleans Book Festival! 

The post Founder Rosenthal will be panelist at New Orleans Book Festival first appeared on Levees.Org.

When Good News Turns To Tagedy

Recently, US Senator Jim Inhofe was jubilant over bringing home federal funding ––$137 million––for a levee project in his home state of Oklahoma.

Senator Inhofe is rightly happy about this news. Funding for lifesaving levees is of the utmost importance.

Exactly thirty years ago, an equally jubilant US Senator J. Bennett Johnston had just brought home $50 million from the federal government and the Army Corps of Engineers for levee improvements in New Orleans.An equally triumphant Orleans Levee Board called for a press conference to announce the news.

But what the board members didn’t know was that the US Army Corps of Engineers would proceed to build flimsy floodwalls that crumbled at half the pressure they were designed to contain when Hurricane Katrina arrived 14 years later.

The levee board members in Oklahoma would do well to pay close attention to the Corps of Engineers. If not, good news can turn to tragedy.

Almost no engineering students in the nation are being taught about the 2005 levee breach disaster of New Orleans. Please sign our petition requesting that engineering disasters and their causes be taught in engineering schools.

ADD YOUR NAME TO OUR PETITION.

Learn more about the Tulsa Levee Project.

The post When Good News Turns To Tagedy first appeared on Levees.Org.

A Manifesto: Engineering Students Must Learn About Engineering Disasters

A bridge collapsed in Pittsburgh hours before President Joe Biden’s visit to the Pennsylvania city to talk about his infrastructure plan. 1-28-22

It’s come to the attention of Levees.org that civil engineering students are not being taught about the worst civil engineering disaster in US history.

Students are graduating without the crucial knowledge that engineering mistakes led to the collapse of the Army Corps of Engineers’ levees in New Orleans in August of 2005.

“There is no acknowledgment from academic institutions that they are responsible for instruction of “professional practice” issues, such as the applicable “standard of care” engineers can expect to be held to once they graduate and begin their practice,” says nationally renowned engineering expert J. David Rogers.

Levees.org has therefore launched a campaign urging the newly installed president of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) to lead the push for engineering students to learn about catastrophic engineering mistakes, including the levee breach disaster of 2005.

Sign the petition to ASCE President Dennis Truax.

Learn about the Pittsburgh bridge collapse today.

The post A Manifesto: Engineering Students Must Learn About Engineering Disasters first appeared on Levees.Org.

New Orleans Book Festival will showcase founder Sandy Rosenthal and her debut book

In a recent press release, the 2022 New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University states that it will host its inaugural weekend, March 10-12, with a three-day, in-person literary celebration featuring more than 100 national, regional and local authors, including some of the nation’s most beloved bestsellers. The festival is free and open to the public. A schedule of events will be released in early February.

The lineup of Best-Selling Authors includes Levees.org founder Sandy Rosenthal for her debut book, Words Whispered in Water; Why the Levees Broke in Hurricane Katrina (Mango, 2020).

The press release continues: The new, major literary event for the Crescent City, whose debut was postponed by the pandemic, will feature panel discussions, moderated conversations, keynote lectures, book fairs, family programming and workshops. Each day will include at least one major plenary session, which will feature a leading author. The event will also provide a forum for media outlets, authors and readers to network and collaborate in one of the world’s most vibrant and culturally diverse cities.

Find out more about the Festival.

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Arts Council to unveil sculpture at Levees.org’s Levee Exhibit Hall & Garden

The Arts Council of New Orleans, in partnership with the City of New Orleans, the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA) and the residents of the Filmore Gardens neighborhood, will unveil a new sculpture at Levees.org’s Levee Exhibit Hall & Garden.

WHAT: Unveiling Ceremony
WHEN: Sunday, November 7th from 3:30-5:30
WHERE: 5000 Warrington Drive
WHO: The Arts Council of New Orleans, the City of New Orleans, the New Orleans Development Authority (NORA), residents of the Filmore Gardens neighborhood and Levees.org

The art commission arose out of a much broader project––the Gentilly Resilience District made possible through a $141 million grant received by the City of New Orleans from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) National Disaster Resilience Competition.

The goal of the Gentilly Resilience District is to reduce flood risk, slow land subsidence, improve energy reliability, and encourage neighborhood revitalization.

The art commission is one of several public art works that the Arts Council is coordinating for the St. Anthony neighborhood in Gentilly, which saw catastrophic flooding when levees and floodwalls breached during Hurricane Katrina. The purpose of public art is to illuminate, educate, and catalyze action about the environmental challenges facing the city.

The commission at 5000 Warrington Drive near the London Avenue Canal breach site is designed by a group of fourteen youth artists from the Arts Council’s Young Artist Movement program at The NET Charter High School in Gentilly. They worked alongside local artist Carl Joe Williams to create the substantial piece of art that speaks to neighborhood history, the community’s resilience, and its relationship with water. The artists have also completed a series of sculptures for the NORA rain garden nearby at the corner of Filmore Avenue and Wildair Drive.

Levees.org is working with the Arts Council and providing the engineering expertise for the sculpture’s foundation. Levees.org is also covering the cost of the materials and construction of the foundation.

The installation will be marked by an unveiling ceremony on Sunday, November 7, 2-3:30 PM at 5000 Warrington Drive.

ABOUT LEVEES.ORG

Created after Hurricane Katrina, Levees.org is a nonprofit with a mission of education about why New Orleans flooded during the 2005 hurricane. The levees failed due to design and construction mistakes by the US Army Corps of Engineers. Today, Levees.org advocates for the 62% of the nation’s population living by levees.

ABOUT THE ARTS COUNCIL NEW ORLEANS

The Arts Council New Orleans is a private 501(c)3 nonprofit organization designated as the official arts agency for the City of New Orleans. The Arts Council’s mission is to improve the quality of life in New Orleans by supporting, activating, and investing in our city’s greatest natural resource: our artists, cultural producers, and creative community. Programs include Unframed presented by The Helis Foundation, Arts Market New Orleans, Young Artist Movement (YAM), LUNA Fête, and grantmaking, as well as commissions and community projects. Visit artsneworleans.org for more information.

ABOUT THE GENTILLY RESILIENCE DISTRICT

The Gentilly Resilience District is a combination of efforts across Gentilly to reduce flood risk, slow land subsidence, improve energy reliability, and encourage neighborhood revitalization. The city’s first Resilience District uses various approaches to water and land management that have been successfully piloted throughout New Orleans and, when implemented together, are intended to create even greater neighborhood benefits—such as improved health, economic opportunity, environmental education, and recreation. Visit https://nola.gov/resilience-sustainab... for more information.

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“Words Whispered in Water” wins two more awards

Levees.org founder Sandy Rosenthal’s book “Words Whispered in Water: Why the Levees Broke in Hurricane Katrina” has recently won two more awards.

On August 21, Rosenthal learned that her book had won the Silver Falchion Award in the Best Nonfiction category. This award is given to debut authors who incorporate mystery, suspense and thriller into their work.

On September 15, Rosenthal got word that her book had won the Readers’ Favorite Award in the Nonfiction – Government/Politics category.

These two awards brings the total number of awards to seven. “Words Whispered in Water” has also won four distinctions.

For more about the Silver Falchion Award, the Readers’ Favorite Award, and the other five awards that “Words Whispered in Water” has won, click here.

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Founder Rosenthal featured by national media on Hurricane Ida

Levees.org founder Sandy Rosenthal was featured by national media for her commentary on the New Orleans levee system and Hurricane Ida.

On Tuesday August 31, Rosenthal’s remarks were included in a story by the Washington Post’s senior editor Marc Fisher.

And on Wednesday, September 1, Rosenthal was interviewed by Julie Rose with Top of Mind, a national radio show which states on its website that the show is “smart, informative, unflinching conversations that go beyond mere headlines and sound bites.”

In both interviews, Rosenthal’s goal was focusing on the human cost of the current levee system in place when Hurricane Ida arrived, built by the Army Corps of Engineers.

The hurricane system in New Orleans that was in place when Hurricane Katrina’s moderate storm surge arrived sixteen years ago should have held. The storm surge exposed design flaws in the levees. New Orleans has a new system now, but at enormous human cost––1500+ lives.

For the Washington Post article, click here.

For the Julie Rose interview, click here.

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