This guide is an organized gateway for research on Hurricane Katrina. Start here to search for books, articles, images, and other media. It also introduces a variety of key journals, archives and websites
One book always leads to another. Click on the book records to find out more about them.
Catastrophe in the Making by William R. Freudenburg; Robert B. Gramling; Shirley Laska; Kai EriksonWhen houses are flattened, towns submerged, and people stranded without electricity or even food, we attribute the suffering to "natural disasters" or "acts of God." But what if they're neither? What if we, as a society, are bringing these catastrophes on ourselves? That's the provocative theory of Catastrophe in the Making, the first book to recognize Hurricane Katrina not as a "perfect storm," but a tragedy of our own making--and one that could become commonplace. The authors, one a longtime New Orleans resident, argue that breached levees and sloppy emergency response are just the most obvious examples of government failure. The true problem is more deeply rooted and insidious, and stretches far beyond the Gulf Coast. Based on the false promise of widespread prosperity, communities across the U.S. have embraced all brands of "economic development" at all costs. In Louisiana, that meant development interests turning wetlands into shipping lanes. By replacing a natural buffer against storm surges with a 75-mile long, obsolete canal that cost hundreds of millions of dollars, they guided the hurricane into the heart of New Orleans and adjacent communities. The authors reveal why, despite their geographic differences, California and Missouri are building--quite literally--toward similar destruction. Too often, the U.S. "growth machine" generates wealth for a few and misery for many. Drawing lessons from the most expensive "natural" disaster in American history, Catastrophe in the Making shows why thoughtless development comes at a price we can ill afford.
ISBN: 9781597266826
Publication Date: 2009-09-08
Just Seconds from the Ocean by William SargentThe idea of living on the coast conjures images of rolling waves, rocky outcroppings, and sandy stretches of beach. This picturesque conception stands in direct contrast to the reality of the natural world. In Just Seconds from the Ocean: Coastal Living in the Wake of Katrina, William Sargent examines the real potential for catastrophe in these seemingly idyllic locations and how coastal dwellers perch precariously on the edge of disaster. Following the devastation wrought in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the need for a rational policy of coastal regulation and development became alarmingly clear. Sargent combines firsthand interviews with incisive analysis of the natural environment, focusing not only on New Orleans before and after Katrina, but also on how hurricanes and beach erosion have affected communities and cities as diverse as Miami, New York, Atlantic City, and Galveston. A long-time natural scientist and dedicated environmentalist, Sargent argues strenuously that serious consideration must be paid to the natural protection provided by barrier islands, inlets, and free-flowing rivers as man-made features threaten to destroy these built-in environmental safeguards. Just Seconds from the Ocean is a timely and necessary examination of current coastal communities and recent storms paired with historical insights into human reactions and responses to catastrophic flooding from hurricanes. Analysis of events from the nineteenth century to the present creates a continuum of knowledge and a chance to prepare for the future by examining the past. The science of global warming, sea level rise, and other natural occurrences are woven into this precautionary tale of environmental phenomenon and human resilience.
ISBN: 9781584656890
Publication Date: 2008-04-30
Katrina by Gary RivlinOne of New York Times's 100 Notable Books of the Year, 2015 One of NPR's Best Books of 2015 Ten years after Hurricane Katrina made landfall in southeast Louisiana--on August 29, 2005--journalist Gary Rivlin traces the storm's immediate damage, the city of New Orleans's efforts to rebuild itself, and the storm's lasting effects not just on the city's geography and infrastructure--but on the psychic, racial, and social fabric of one of this nation's great cities. Much of New Orleans still sat under water the first time Gary Rivlin glimpsed the city after Hurricane Katrina. Then a staff reporter for The New York Times, he was heading into the city to survey the damage. The Interstate was eerily empty. Soldiers in uniform and armed with assault rifles stopped him. Water reached the eaves of houses for as far as the eye could see. Four out of every five houses--eighty percent of the city's housing stock--had been flooded. Around that same proportion of schools and businesses were wrecked. The weight of all that water on the streets cracked gas and water and sewer pipes all around town and the deluge had drowned almost every power substation and rendered unusable most of the city's water and sewer system. People living in flooded areas of the city could not be expected to pay their property taxes for the foreseeable future. Nor would all those boarded-up businesses--21,000 of the city's 22,000 businesses were still shuttered six months after the storm--be contributing their share of sales taxes and other fees to the city's coffers. Six weeks after the storm, the city laid off half its workforce--precisely when so many people were turning to its government for help. Meanwhile, cynics both in and out of the Beltway were questioning the use of taxpayer dollars to rebuild a city that sat mostly below sea level. How could the city possibly come back? This book traces the stories of New Orleanians of all stripes--politicians and business owners, teachers and bus drivers, poor and wealthy, black and white--as they confront the aftermath of one of the great tragedies of our age and reconstruct, change, and in some cases abandon a city that's the soul of this nation.
ISBN: 9781451692228
Publication Date: 2015-08-11
Natural Disasters and Public Health by Virginia M. Brennan (Editor)The events of Hurricane Katrina have been seared into our collective consciousness, revealing a glaring discrepancy between the experiences of privileged whites and those of low-income blacks. The latter faced a scale of physical danger and mental trauma that the former largely escaped. While residents with resources evacuated in cars, poor residents were left to fend for themselves--without food, water, medicine, shelter, or safety. Many poor African Americans died; many more lost loved ones and all of their material belongings. Natural Disasters and Public Health analyzes the public health effects of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma on minorities in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast. The contributors assess the overall health policy and public health implications of these three natural disasters. While most of the current literature on disaster relief focuses on FEMA, race, urban planning, and the environment, Natural Disasters and Public Health takes a broader perspective, advocating the inclusion of comprehensive public health policy in future disaster relief programs. Unflinching photographs--many from the Astrodome in Houston after the evacuation of New Orleans and including the triage clinic set up there by the Baylor School of Medicine--illustrate the poor conditions under which health care professionals and aid workers ministered to the sick and injured. Reports from the field by disaster relief professionals and research articles by scholars present lessons learned and offer tools and guidance for future planning. This volume is a valuable resource for public policymakers, health care agencies, providers who plan for large-scale emergencies, academics teaching disaster relief courses, and professionals working in this field.
ISBN: 9780801891991
Publication Date: 2009-06-26
Nursing in the Storm by Denise Danna; Sandra E. Cordray2010 PROSE Award Winner for Nursing & Allied Health Sciences 2010 AJN Book of the Year Award Winner in Public Interest and Creative Works The accounts are vivid, colorful, descriptive, intense, and often horrific and give cross-sectional views of life in the trenches during this disaster√ This book is a rich primary source for both historians and disaster preparedness planners. It's not only a tribute to the courage of the nurses, but should also serve as a guide for policy planners hoping to avoid less than optimal responses to future crises.--AJN T]he book...fascinates simply for its raw documentation of the dreadful events and conditions endured by nurses, doctors, and ancillary staff as they struggled to care for critically ill patients without electricity, running water, air conditioning systems, and other resources. Five years after the levees broke, the horror and chaos of Katrina is still fresh in these accounts. Through the stories, readers are transported into the hospitals as nurses heroically work together to evacuate babies from NICUs and vented patients from ICU, try to calm patients, family members, and coworkers, and make do with the equipment and supplies they've got.--National Nurse Don't ever think that this can't happen to you. You are going to read this and it's going to sound like we created this scenario, but this is a real scenario that happened. --Pam, Memorial Medical Center Everything that was battery operated eventually died. There were no monitors...we tried to take care of people in the most humane way possible. --Lois, Lindy Boggs Medical Center Nursing in the Storm: Voices from Hurricane Katrina takes you inside six New Orleans hospitals-cut off from help for days by flooding-where nurses cared for patients around the clock. In this book, nurses from Hurricane Katrina share what they did, how they coped, what they lost, and what they are doing now in a city and health care infrastructure still rebuilding, still in jeopardy. In their own words, the nurses tell what happened in each hospital just before, during, and after the storm. Danna and Cordray provide an intimate portrait of the experience of Katrina, which they and their colleagues endured. Just a few of the heroic nurses you'll find inside: Rae Ann and twenty others, including her husband and children, who wait on a hospital roof for help to come Lisa, in the midst of caring for patients, who has not heard from her husband in 5 days Roslyn, who has 800 people in her hospital when the power generators shut down Linda, who uses bed sheets to write out help messages on a hospital roof, hoping someone will see them The book also discusses how to plan and prepare for future disasters, with a closing chapter documenting the "lessons learned" from Katrina, including day-to-day health care delivery in a city of crisis. This groundbreaking work serves as a testament to nurses' professionalism, perseverance, and unwavering dedication.
ISBN: 9780826118370
Publication Date: 2009-12-01
Race, Place, and Environmental Justice after Hurricane Katrina by Beverly Wright (Editor); Robert D. Bullard (Editor)On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall near New Orleans leaving death and destruction across the Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama Gulf Coast counties. The lethargic and inept emergency response that followed exposed institutional flaws, poor planning, and false assumptions that are built into the emergency response and homeland security plans and programs. Questions linger: What went wrong? Can it happen again? Is our government equipped to plan for, mitigate, respond to, and recover from natural and manmade disasters? Can the public trust government response to be fair? Does race matter? Racial disparities exist in disaster response, cleanup, rebuilding, reconstruction, and recovery. Race plays out in natural disaster survivors' ability to rebuild, replace infrastructure, obtain loans, and locate temporary and permanent housing. Generally, low-income and people of color disaster victims spend more time in temporary housing, shelters, trailers, mobile homes, and hotels - and are more vulnerable to permanent displacement. Some 'temporary' homes have not proved to be that temporary. In exploring the geography of vulnerability, this book asks why some communities get left behind economically, spatially, and physically before and after disasters strike.
ISBN: 0813344247
Publication Date: 2009-02-10
Examples of Books in the Catalog
1 Dead in Attic : after Katrina by Chris RoseOriginally a self-published sensation by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, 1 Dead in Attic captures the heart and soul of New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. 1 Dead in Attic is a collection of stories by Times-Picayune columnist Chris Rose, recounting the first harrowing year and a half of life in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Celebrated as a local treasure and heaped with national praise, Rose provides a rollercoaster ride of observation, commentary, emotion, tragedy, and even humor—in a way that only he could find in a devastated wasteland. They are stories of the dead and the living, stories of survivors and believers, stories of hope and despair. And stories about refrigerators. 1 Dead in Attic freeze-frames New Orleans, caught between an old era and a new, during its most desperate time, as it struggles out of the floodwaters and wills itself back to life.
Call Number: 976.335064 R79o
ISBN: 9781416552987
Publication Date: 2007-08-21
Code Blue by Richard E. DeichmannCode Blue: A Katrina Physician¿s Memoir finally tells the inside story of the hellish nightmare those who struggled to survive the ordeal were cast into. Dr. Richard Deichmann, the hospital¿s chief of medicine and one of the leaders of the evacuation, gives his compelling account of the rapidly deteriorating state of affairs at the hospital. He takes us through the daily horrors and numbing disappointments. This gripping tale of survival, despite betrayal and abandonment by the authorities, may change forever the way you view the threat of a mass disaster.
ISBN: 9781600080265
Publication Date: 2007-04-01
Disaster by Christopher Cooper; Robert Block; Christopher CooperBased on exclusive interviews, the inside story of how America's emergency response system failed and how it remains dangerously broken When Hurricane Katrina roared ashore on the morning of August 29, 2005, federal and state officials were not prepared for the devastation it would bring - despite all the drills, exercises, and warnings. In this troubling exposé of what went wrong, Christopher Cooper and Robert Block of The Wall Street Journal show that the flaws go much deeper than out-of-touch federal bureaucrats or overwhelmed local politicians. Drawing on exclusive interviews with federal, state, and local officials, Cooper and Block take readers inside the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security to reveal the inexcusable mismanagement during Hurricane Katrina - the bad decisions that were made, the facts that were ignored, the individuals who saw that the system was broken but were unable to fix it. America's top emergency response officials had long known that a calamitous hurricane was likely to hit New Orleans, but that seems to have had little effect on planning or execution. Disaster demonstrates that the incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina is a wake-up call to all Americans, wherever they live, about how distressingly vulnerable we remain. Washington is ill equipped to handle large-scale emergencies, be they floods or fires, natural events or terrorist attacks, and Cooper and Block make a strong case for overhauling of the nation's emergency response system. This is a book that no American can afford to ignore.
Call Number: 976.044 C77d
ISBN: 0805081305
Publication Date: 2006-08-08
The Politics of Disaster by Marvin OlaskyWhy was the government not capable of responding to human need in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina? How will the "Katrina failure" impact the next presidential election? And just what should we expect--and not expect--from the government in times of crisis? "Big government didn't work," says veteran journalist and political analyst Marvin Olasky. "And it is clear that a new paradigm for responding to national crisis has emerged. Private and faith-based organizations have stepped in and politics will never be the same."
Rebuilding Urban Places after Disaster by Eugenie L. Birch (Editor); Susan M. Wachter (Editor)Disasters--natural ones, such as hurricanes, floods, or earthquakes, and unnatural ones such as terrorist attacks--are part of the American experience in the twenty-first century. The challenges of preparing for these events, withstanding their impact, and rebuilding communities afterward require strategic responses from different levels of government in partnership with the private sector and in accordance with the public will. Disasters have a disproportionate effect on urban places. Dense by definition, cities and their environs suffer great damage to their complex, interdependent social, environmental, and economic systems. Social and medical services collapse. Long-standing problems in educational access and quality become especially acute. Local economies cease to function. Cultural resources disappear. The plight of New Orleans and several smaller Gulf Coast cities exemplifies this phenomenon. This volume examines the rebuilding of cities and their environs after a disaster and focuses on four major issues: making cities less vulnerable to disaster, reestablishing economic viability, responding to the permanent needs of the displaced, and recreating a sense of place. Success in these areas requires that priorities be set cooperatively, and this goal poses significant challenges for rebuilding efforts in a democratic, market-based society. Who sets priorities and how? Can participatory decision-making be organized under conditions requiring focused, strategic choices? How do issues of race and class intersect with these priorities? Should the purpose of rebuilding be restoration or reformation? Contributors address these and other questions related to environmental conditions, economic imperatives, social welfare concerns, and issues of planning and design in light of the lessons to be drawn from Hurricane Katrina.
ISBN: 0812219805
Publication Date: 2006-11-22
Unnatural Disaster by Betsy Reed (Editor); Adolph Reed (Introduction by)Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster of staggering proportions. The vicious winds and surging seas that lashed the Gulf Coast on August 31, 2005, paralyzed New Orleans and left a scene of utter devastation in their wake. But when the winds and waves abated, they revealed an unnatural disaster -- a social catastrophe directly caused by the government's callous indifference to the needs of the region's most vulnerable residents. This pattern of near-criminal government neglect did notbegin with its response to Katrina, but the hurricane did lay bare its extraordinary depth and horrifying consequences, exposing how race and class can spell life or death in contemporary America. In the months that followed, The Nation published a series of articles and editorials documenting the gross negligence of the Bush administration and the heroic effort of community organizers and ordinary citizens to put their city back together again, as well as the attempts of political progressivesto push for a 'New Deal.' Unnatural Disaster includes riveting on-the-scene reporting, columns, blogs, essays and articles from Mike Davis and Anthony Fontenot, Naomi Klein, Patricia Williams, Jeremy Scahill, Eric Alterman, Adolph Reed, Jr., Eric Foner, Curtis Wilkie, Billy Sothern, among many others.