17th Street Canal Breach

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From WWL TV, a story about the dedication - if you will - of a marker to commemorate

the site of the initial breach in the 17th Street Canal four years ago this Saturday. Not a hint of this story shows up at the Nola dot com website.

From the WWL website:


With the help of Levees.org, Roy Arrigo, a former Lakeview resident, put up the marker, which includes a scathing rebuke of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

"Especially around the rest of the country, there's a lot of misinformation about the cause of what happened in New Orleans,” he said. “There's a lot of tour buses and sightseers pass here, and I hope to get the right message to them of what really happened."


The temporary marker may not look like much at first glance, but it packs plenty of punch, with sharp language designed to raise eyebrows.


One section reads, "This breach and others -- part of the metropolitan New Orleans Hurricane Protection System -- together are considered the worst civil engineering disaster in our nation's history. It is the worst in the world since the Chernobyl meltdown."


Too strong?


Levees.org founder Sandy Rosenthal says, 'No'.


"I'm disturbed at how little progress we've made in helping the nation understand, that what happened in New Orleans was not a natural disaster. To say that New Orleans was wiped out by a natural disaster, would be like saying the Minneapolis bridge was wiped out by traffic."


And while they work to create a more permanent landmark, the group hopes, through a few short paragraphs, they can keep the story going.


It's one they say, the nation needs to understand.


"We look at this as one more opportunity to explain to the people, that what happened in New Orleans was a civil engineering failure, and can happen anywhere."