Deadly Indifference: The Perfect (Political) Storm: Hurricane Katrina, The Bush White House and Beyond / by Michael D. Brown

Anyone involved in the Hurricane Katrina mess likely won't have to remember too hard to recognize the author of this book. Michael "Brownie" Brown is someone a lot of people are still angry at. And while it may not be anytime soon that their opinions change, at least he gets to tell his side of the story. The former undersecretary of Homeland Security and FEMA chief who made a hollow mockery out of press conferences during the Hurricane Katrina disaster and who seemingly had the backing of former President Bush tries to counter the opinion most people have of him and the administration's handling of the disaster. But what could have been at least a semi-sincere, apologetic appeal to the masses is instead an account which places blame a little too often by a man more concerned about his own reputation than any apparent "indifference" shown during the disaster. Though he tries to be objective in some parts, Brown's narrative tends to implicate and and indict more than inform. Everyone from his boss Michael Chertoff (who must at least hold some of the blame) to his boss's bosses (President Bush and Donald Rumsfeld) to the state-level chain of command (Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin) to the media (an especially akward section of the book is dedicated to his on-air interview with Soledad O'Brien) and the American public who stand ready to condemn are included in Brown's rant. Though disappointing, his account is informative and most will want to at least take a look at it. It's also a book which still reflects on the local, cultural environment. (976.044 BROWN)

Natural Disaster Fiction

City of Refuge: A Novel / by Tom Piazza

In the steamy heat of late summer, two New Orleans families, each from different backgrounds make preparations as Hurricane Katrina approaches. SJ Williams, a self-employed carpenter and widower, lives in the city's Lower Ninth Ward with his sister and nephew while across town Craig Donaldson, a midwestern transplant lured by the city's music and culture, faces deepening cracks in his own family who want to move back to Minnesota. But the hurricane’s arrival is only the beginning as each family struggles to come to terms with the reality of lives uprooted. (FIC PIAZZA)

Blown Away / by Sharon Sala

When Cari North stumbles across her ex-fiance Lance Morgan digging a grave in the swampy Louisiana woods, she knows something’s not quite right. Now suspecting the truth, that Lance may have murdered someone, Cari flees the scene only to encounter a tornado spawned by a hurricane right in her path. Just when she thinks she's home free, Cari finds that the storm has swept in another twist of fate, one that will change her fate--forever. This is the first book in Sala’s “Storm Front” series. (FIC SALA)

Deep Freeze / by Thom Racina
Only the most unusual of natural disasters could disrupt the normally unremitting course of daily activity in Southern California, a place which is, after all, used to routine floods, mudslides, earthquakes, brush fires, even swarms of Africanized Honeybees. But a winter storm of mass proportions does that, making roads impassable, freezing swimming pools into blocks of ice and generally creating a frenzied atmosphere bordering on mayhem for all sectors of society. (FIC RACINA)

Avalanche: A Sheriff Bo Tully Mystery / by Patrick F. McManus
When luxury ski lodge owner Mike Wilson goes missing, Blight County (ID) Sheriff Bo Tully suspects that Wilson is probably just off on another fling. But, doing his duty, Tully drives up to the lodge anticipating an easy missing persons case only to meet an oncoming avalanche head-on. Now stuck at the lodge, after having just barely made it safe inside, Tully finds there may be more to Mike’s disappearance than he originally thought. (MYS MCMANUS)

One Amazing Thing / by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Nine strangers are caught together in a passport and visa office one afternoon when a violent earthquake rips through area, trapping all of them inside. As the office begins to flood and the struggle for survival becomes intensified, all begin to share pieces of themselves, emotionally uplifting tidbits from their own lives to life morale. As their surprising stories of love, loss and self-revelation unfold against the urgency of their life-or-death circumstances, the transcendent power of stories and the meaningfulness of human expression helps them cope with time running out. (FIC DIVAKARU)

Acts of Nature / by Jonathon King
Private Eye Max Freeman and his girlfriend, Detective Sherry Richards have relocated to the Florida Everglades to be much needed R&R. It's the kind of life they've looked forward to for a while with no TV, no phones, no neighbors. But with the arrival of a devastating hurricane, more than just their little piece of paradise is uprooted as Sherry is severely injured and with no means of calling for help, the couple begins a treacherous trip back to civilization only to run in to some thoroughly undesirable characters who've been uprooted as well. (MYS KING)

Ark / by Stephen Baxter
In the not-so-distant future, life on planet earth lies on the brink of extinction after a massive flood submerged nearly everything. In a last ditch attempt to secure the survival of mankind, two specially designed space crafts, Ark One and Ark Two, have been designed to transport survivors to another life-sustaining planet many light years away. Holle Groundwater is one of the chosen few who've been trained since childhood for destiny and is finally ready to embark on her destiny when she uncovers a secret revealing that escaping earth may be a more dangerous task than remaining behing on a drowning planet. (SF BAXTER)

When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006) DVD / A Spike Lee Film; an HBO Original Documentary Films Event

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♫ If it keeps on raining levee's going to break
. .When the levee breaks have no place to stay ♪
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The title "When The Levees Broke" references a song popularized by Led Zeppelin but first recorded by Delta Blues tandem Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy. The original dates back to the depression and is an ode to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 in which thousands of Mississippi Delta residents lost their homes and livelihoods, many having to permanently relocate to places like Chicago or Kansas City. The ironical ballad, with its haunting melody and chorus is a spot-on title for this revealing documentary, likely among the most important films Spike Lee and HBO have ever made. In addition to erasing many pre-conceived notions pertaining to Lee’s projects, the piece represents a cumulative voice of the Katrina disaster victims. It's an aggressively vocal, emotionally powerful and thoroughly detailed exposition on the devastation that was Hurricane Katrina as told by the survivors.
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It’s also a documentary in the truest sense--over 4 hours in length, with literally hundreds of images, dozens of interviews and a fully comprehensive analysis of exactly what went down. The film was even scored by Terence Blanchard, a Spike Lee collaborator and New Orleans native, who was coincidentally raised in the ninth ward in a house destroyed by the flooding. Nothing is withheld, nothing is censored. Perspectives on the plight of the city are portrayed through eyes of everyone. Testimonies include that of politicians and pedestrians; white, black, rich and poor; from those sheltering in the Superdome to those who escaped before the storm hit. Analysis is presented by structural engineers who assess why the levees broke and civilians who suspect otherwise.
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Among those featured are the multitudes left stranded on rooftops as well as the hundreds of homeless, disabled and displaced others all abruptly relocated against their will away from their families. Celebrities present at ground zero like Wynton Marsalis and Sean Penn offer their stories (Penn literally dropped everything flew to New Orleans from California after seeing a news brief). Journalists like Soledad O’Brien, who conducted a series of baffling interviews with infamous FEMA Director Michael Brown about the absence of federal aid, and WWL radio host Garland Robinette recall the maddening communications disaster and emergency management gaffe which imperiled the lives of thousands and imprinted a legacy of enmity and distrust towards government officials. For anyone with Louisiana ties or for those even remotely connected to New Orleans or the Gulf Region, this is a must see. (DVD 976.335044 WHEN)
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Recently a follow-up documentary mini-series "If God is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise", also by Spike Lee in partnership with HBO, was broadcast. Showing the lasting legacy of Hurricane Katrina, it reconnects with many of the original interviewees and looks back at the disaster while investigating how things have (or haven't) changed in the five years since the tragedy.

A.D. : New Orleans After the Deluge by Josh Neufeld

Although I am not that familiar with graphic books, the drawing on the cover of this book got my attention right away. Hurricane Katrina is pictured as an enormous swirling mushroom-like cloud descending on the city of New Orleans. Josh Neufeld, the author and illustrator, has written another nonfiction graphic book on his travels in Europe and Asia, and is a contributing artist for the work of the graphic realist Harvey Pekar, best known for the series American Splendor. You can see the original version of A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge online at www.smithmag.net. Larry Smith, the story-telling website’s creator, suggested Neufeld do a serial on Katrina’s survivors, after Neufeld had published a book recounting his experience of helping out with the Red Cross in Biloxi, Mississippi after the storm.
In the book, we follow the experiences of seven people in New Orleans, based on real life characters, as they lived through Katrina. After the ominous preface - a series of drawings showing the city, the storm slowly approaching and then wreaking havoc, the subsequent flooding and desolation – the story then goes back in time, introducing the characters and their reactions to the news of the impending hurricane. Neufeld is bent on giving us the complete picture of their experiences, from the foul language many use, to the gritty details of having to tend to bodily functions without benefit of restrooms.
As you witness the different reactions to the emergency, you realize each are dealing with different pressures and needs. Denise, a social worker living with her mom who is a hospital technician, goes to the hospital to shelter but finds their promised room has been given away to employees with more status. Abbas, a convenience store owner, decides to stay by his store with a friend, only to end up on the roof, with everything gone in the flood. As an outsider, it was striking for me to realize the impact of the flooding – how the storm was one thing, but the levees’ destruction caused the real disaster. You can see more clearly how so many could really not evacuate, and the calamity of their very real abandonment by the authorities. And the graphic format is invaluable in its ability to show the immediacy and the starkness of the reality, which proved so overwhelming in spite of how resourceful everyone tried to be.