[.ca] The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and ... (ISBN 0061124230)

How The Gulf Coast Was Lost And What It Got Us:
Compressed into the week of Aug. 27 to Sept. 3, 2005, Brinkley wisely employs (to a large measure) the voices of those who were directly in the gunsights of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath - from the "refugees", to the first responders, and through to the media who were there to cover the storm. Exceptionally well written and providing a fine historical analysis of the complacency which pervaded government agencies in its treatment of the always-present threat of hurricanes to the Big Easy, no level of government is spared Brinkley's pointed analysis and criticism. However, as Brinkley is careful to point out, this was not just a New Orleans catastrophe, but also a Gulf Coast one, and he makes sure to include numerous stories and anecdotes from the entire region. What emerges is a portrait of desperation, courage, inhumanity, generosity, and national embarrassment and shame. The only drawback to the book is that, as Brinkley admits in the foreword, certain Gulf Coast locales and its people got short shrift due to deadline constraints. Overall, this book is a very good documentation of the initial tragedy, but perhaps it would have been even better had Brinkley taken (or been allowed) a few more months so as to obtain a thorough overview of the subsequent tribulations faced by the hurricane's victims. However, what is included here is harrowing and compelling.