Levees.org, a nonprofit flood-control advocacy group, kicked off a national television advertising campaign on Tuesday featuring activist actor and comedian Harry Shearer asking, “Don’t we all deserve levees that work?”

The campaign aims to explain to other communities protected by levees that they could experience a catastrophic flood like New Orleans experienced during Hurricane Katrina.

“Too many people don’t understand that what happened here was a case of engineering failures and poor decision-making, and too many people don’t understand that what happened here could happen there as well,” said Sandy Rosenthal, the organization’s executive director.

She said the spots are part of her organization’s larger campaign to hold accountable those responsible for preventing flooding. It’s also part of an effort to expand Levees.org membership into other states where levees may be in similar states of disrepair.

The 30’second and 15’second spots point out that the Army Corps of Engineers recently informed communities in 28 states that they had found serious flaws in more than 120 levee sections.

A more extensive five-year study of the adequacy of levee designs nationwide is expected to begin later this year.

“Are you as safe as you think you are?” Shearer asks, as a picture of him standing on a levee fades

to a photograph of a flooded New Orleans house with a car propped askew on a telephone pole. “What happened here in New Orleans could happen anywhere … to you.”
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