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In the span of five violent hours on August
29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed major Gulf Coast cities
and flattened 150 miles of coastline. Yet those wind-torn
hours represented only the first stage of the relentless triple
tragedy that Katrina brought to the entire Gulf Coast, from
Louisiana to Mississippi to Alabama.
First came the hurricane, one of the three
strongest ever to make landfall in the United States—150-mile-
per-hour winds, with gusts measuring more than 180 miles per
hour ripping buildings to pieces.
Second, the storm-surge flooding, which
submerged a half million homes, creating the largest domestic
refugee crisis since the Civil War. Eighty percent of New
Orleans was under water, as debris and sewage coursed through
the streets, and whole towns in south-eastern Louisiana ceased
to exist.
And third, the human tragedy of government
mis-management, which proved as cruel as the natural disaster
itself. Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, implemented an
evacuation plan that favored the rich and healthy. Kathleen
Blanco, governor of Louisiana, dithered in the most important
aspect of her job: providing leadership in a time of fear
and confusion. Michael C. Brown, the FEMA director, seemed
more concerned with his sartorial splendor than the specter
of death and horror that was taking New Orleans into its grip.
In The Great Deluge, bestselling
author Douglas Brinkley, a New Orleans resident and professor
of history at Tulane University, rips the story of Katrina
apart and relates what the Category 3 hurricane was like from
every point of view. The book finds the true heroes—such as
Coast Guard officer Jimmy Duckworth and hurricane jock Tony
Zumbado.
Throughout the book, Brinkley lets the
Katrina survivors tell their own stories, masterly allowing
them to record the nightmare that was Katrina. The Great
Deluge investigates the failure of government at every
level and breaks important new stories. Packed with interviews
and original research, it traces the character flaws, inexperience,
and ulterior motives that allowed the Katrina disaster to
devastate the Gulf Coast.
Douglas Brinkley is professor
of history and director of the Roosevelt Center at Tulane
University. Four of his books were selected as New York
Times Notable Books of the Year. His last three historical
narratives Tour of Duty, The Boys of Pointe du Hoc,
and Parish Priest were all New York Times bestsellers.
A contributing editor to Vanity Fair and American
Heritage, he lives in New Orleans with his wife, Anne,
and their two children, Benton and Johnny.
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