After announcing this afternoon that John Barry will be part of Thursday’s Breakfast with the Newsmakers, now we’re here to tell you that he won’t be there after all.

Barry was able to accommodate our request because of another event in town, which has just been canceled. We’ll continue as originally scheduled with Paul Kemp.

Barry, who is working on a new book in Washington D.C., had planned to come to New Orleans to attend Thursday’s meeting of the nominating committee for the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East board. But Tuesday that meeting was cancelled due to a lack of a quorum.

Kemp will talk with Lens environmental reporter Bob Marshall and take questions from the audience.

Kemp is a coastal oceanographer and geologist at Louisiana State University, and serves on the Flood Protection Authority.

Barry and Kemp are well-positioned to discuss the security of our post-Katrina flood protection system and how important coastal restoration is to the future of New Orleans.

Join us at Basin St. Station Thursday starting at 8 a.m.

Event details

Date: Thursday, Aug. 20

Time: 8 to 9 a.m. Doors open at 7:30 a.m.

Questions: Anne Mueller, amueller@TheLensNola.org

Location: Basin St. Station, 4th floor, 501 Basin St. at St. Louis Street

Parking: Available in the Basin St. Station parking lot adjacent to the facility. This map shows the location of the parking lot and access points.

A recording of the event will be available the week of August 24.

Sponsors

Special thanks to our sponsors: The Walton Family Foundation, Baptist Community Ministries, LCI Workers’ Comp, the Ella West Freeman Foundation and Basin St. Station.

Breakfast with the Newsmakers is a monthly business-social event that aims to engage The Lens’ audience with one another and with the people making news around New Orleans. Newsmakers events are open to the public. They are free to Lens members, with a $10 suggested donation for non-members.