Words Whispered in Water: Why the Levees Broke in Hurricane Katrina

by Sandy Rosenthal Narrated by Bernadette Dunne

Overview

In 2005, the world watched in horror as a major American city-New Orleans-was nearly wiped off the map by an epic flood. Newscasters attributed the flooding to a “natural disaster.”

But one New Orleanian had her doubts.

Words Whispered in Water is the story of how-against all odds-one woman exposed the culprit in the catastrophic flooding and compelled the news media, and the government, to tell the truth.

Words Whispered in Water highlights the importance of exposing the bad behavior of giant corporations and bureaucracies whose unsavory activities affect millions of people, because once bad behavior is exposed, there is noticeably less fraud and better behavior on the part of an organization. Rosenthal's story is crucial listening for potential citizen activists looking to make a difference. Additionally, Words Whispered in Water provides lessons for politicians and bureaucrats from City Hall, to Congress, to the almost faceless Army Corps.

Finally, Words Whispered in Water offers a valuable warning as to what is likely to happen in this time of eroding coastlines, coupled with America's history of trying to control-instead of coexist-with water.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

11/16/2020

Political activist Rosenthal delivers a blow-by-blow account of her fight to hold the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers accountable for the flooding of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Though the Corps sought to blame the disaster on the size of the storm surge and negligence by local officials, Rosenthal writes, the fault actually lies with poorly constructed floodwalls that collapsed “at a fraction of the water pressure they were designed to contain.” Rosenthal shares stories of friends and neighbors whose homes were damaged in the storm (hers was relatively unscathed) and chronicles her growing suspicions that the media and the U.S. Army were misrepresenting the causes of the flooding. She formed a grassroots organization to push for university-based studies of the structural integrity of the levees, which revealed that the Corps of Engineers covered up problems with its floodwalls. Hurricane victims sued in federal court, and in 2009 the Corps was found liable for poor maintenance of its Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet. Rosenthal dives deep into the technical details of flood control and the tactics and strategies of her campaign. This granular account reveals what it takes to hold the powerful to account. (Aug.)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172999505
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	12/15/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

From Words Whispered in Water

Prologue

Just before the eye passed east of New Orleans, hurricane surge entered the 17th Street Canal, the largest drainage canal in the city. Floodwalls groaned against the surge’s weight despite supporting steel pilings anchored into thick, earthen levees. The mighty 17th Street Canal could move nearly 10,000 cubic feet of water per second, enough to drain an Olympic-size swimming pool every nine seconds.

But, on this particular Monday morning (August 29, 2005), something was wrong. A section of the floodwall atop the levee had begun to tilt. The steel pilings were too short, and water was flowing into the exposed open gap. Then, the entire section of the floodwall and the levee slid sideways, unleashing a furious blast of briny water into the nearby neighborhood of homeowners.

Eighteen years earlier, the US Army Corps of Engineers had decided that driving steel pilings deeper than 16 feet was a waste of money. Originally, the design for the canal’s proposed new floodwalls had called for expensive steel pilings driven 46 feet into the ground. But the agency was behind schedule, and costs were rising. In response, the Army Corps conducted a large-scale test study to find ways to save money on steel.

Tragically, they missed a warning sign.

During the test study, when the steel pilings were subjected to a test water surge, they had tilted. No one noticed the menacing tilt because the pilings were underneath a tarp. As a result, the engineers determined that they needed to drive down the steel pilings only 16 feet instead of 46. The Army Corps used this alternate engineering rule for new floodwalls on the 17th Street Canal and several other canals across the city. The new rule saved the Army Corps a total of $100 million.

In 2000, the new floodwalls were installed. But they were destined to fail.
When they collapsed five years later — at a fraction of the water pressure they were designed to contain—hundreds died instantly and thousands more died within months. New Orleans was devastated to the tune of well over $27 billion because floodwalls were not correctly designed and built by the Army Corps.

At 7:08 p.m., EST the day after the floodwalls broke (August 30, 2005), the Army Corps went into full-time, damage-control mode. Its spokespersons told big media outlets that the hurricane storm surge was just too great. Water had flowed over the 17th Street Canal’s floodwall and caused it to collapse. Their story line over the course of the next two years would be that nature caused the destruction of New Orleans, and New Orleanians themselves were responsible for their loss and suffering due to their own stupidity (they live below sea level) and sloth (the local levee officials were lazy). The Army Corps’ primary mission had become rewriting history and duping the American people.

They almost got away with it.

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