Levees.org

Sandy Rosenthal founded Levees.org with her 15 yeard old son Stanford, in Lafayette, Louisiana while she and her family were evacuated from New Orleans in the fall of 2005. Ever since the levee failures and flooding during Hurricane Katrina, Sandy has worked nonstop to separate the facts from the fairy tale. In sustainable ways, she has driven a campaign to ensure that the narrative portrays the flood event as due to the negligent acts of man. The nonprofit has over 25,000 supporters and chapters in five states in addition to a strong social media following.

Rosenthal is putting final touches on her 140,000 manuscript on why she founded Levees.org and what, as a group, was accomplished.

Last month, Levees.org unveiled the Flooded House Museum at the breach site of the London Avenue Canal that tells the story of the levee  breaches. Levees.org hosts an annual guided Levee Breach Bike Tour every May. These are just a few of the many ways that Levees.org separates fact from fiction.

For those efforts, Rosenthal has been honored with numerous awards most recently including Outstanding Social Entrepreneur of the Year from Tulane University, but also Most Influential Woman from Mount Holyoke College and the Hall of Fame Award of the Louisiana Center for Women and Government.  

Rosenthal, an advocate for the 55% of the American population living in counties protected by levees, blogged for the Huffington Post for a decade. Rosenthal has been married to Steve Rosenthal since 1979 and has three adult children: Aliisa, Mark and Stanford and one granddaughter, Ellie. She also has two small dogs named Twinkie and Cupcake.