NEW ORLEANS — The founder of levees.org is releasing her first book, examining the massive levee failures that flooded New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
Sandy Rosenthal’s Words Whispered in Water chronicles her years-long battle with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that began shortly after the floodwaters that inundated New Orleans receded.
As Hurricane Katrina roared through New Orleans, early reports indicated the city had been spared what many feared would be widespread death and destruction. Then word came that levees had failed, and that the New Orleans was filling up with floodwater.
Rosenthal and her organization say the flooding was not a natural disaster, but a man-made one born of the incompetence and neglect of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Speaking to WWL-TV anchor Eric Paulsen, Rosenthal said, “Not only is the Army Corps of Engineers fully responsible for the flooding of New Orleans but the Army Corps spent millions trying to hide that from the American people and from Congress, and they harassed anyone who stood up to them.”
Rosenthal’s book follows her crusade to expose design flaws and the Corps’ campaign to absolve itself from any responsibility for the disaster that killed more than a thousand New Orleanians and caused billions of dollars of damage.
“The survivors of this flood deserve for … the whole country to understand why New Orleans flooded. The survivors deserve to have their children and their children’s children to have better flood protection.”
Words Whispered in Water will be available for purchase anywhere on August 11, but is available now only at Octavia Books. On August 11, Rosenthal will sign books from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Octavia Books.
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