The
Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
By Douglas Brinkley. New York: Harper Perennial, 2007. Xii, 716 pp. $33.95
(paper).
Hurricane
Katrina was the deadliest and most destructive Atlantic tropical cyclone of the
2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It became the most expensive natural disasters
in United States History and rose to the top five most lethal natural disaster
events to hit the United States since its conception. Additionally, it became
the sixth strongest Atlantic hurricane in recorded history. The event led to
the death of 1,833 people as a result of the hurricane itself and subsequent
floods, which made it the deadliest U.S. hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee
hurricane. On top of that, the total property damage was estimated at $81
billion, making it nearly triple the damage caused by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
Best-selling author Douglas Brinkley, a historian at Tulane University in New
Orleans, attempts to address this natural disaster through a multi-perspective
account of the storm and its aftermath in his 716-page book entitled The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New
Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. His presented thesis, for the
historical work, is that Hurricane Katrina unleashed escalating waves of
widespread devastation that intern effected all aspects of civil society (Brinkley,
The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf
Coast, pp. xiv-xv). Despite some small annoyances in literary style and use
of historical sources, Brinkley provides a well-rounded analysis of the
catastrophe, through the eyes of the survivors, in order to make a masterful
recording of the nightmares involved with Hurricane Katrina.
Brinkley
supports his thesis through a series of historically linear chapters that span
a single week of August 27 (Saturday) to September 3 (Sunday) 2005, when the
U.S. 82nd Airborne took control of New Orleans and evacuation buses
finally arrived. Chapters 1 through 2 look at the events that occurred on Saturday,
August 27th. They discuss both Hurricane Katrina’s approach from the
Gulf of Mexico while it is a Category 3 storm (winds of 111-130 mph) and Mayor
C. Ray Nagin’s failure to call for a mandatory evacuation. Chapter 3 involves
the morning of Sunday, August 28th. It addresses areas including: Katrina’s
rise to a Category 5 hurricane (winds 155+ mph), the Superdome opening as a
shelter of last resort, and Mayor Nagin’s mandatory order of evacuation of New
Orleans. Chapter 4 addresses the second half of Sunday, August 28th and
early Monday morning of August 29th. The discussion in the chapter
includes: the presence of approximately 112,000 people in New Orleans who did
not have access to transportation during the call for a mandatory evacuation,
President Bush’s general disengagement from the advent of the hurricane’s
coming devastation despite being briefed on the possible consequences of the
event, and the pressing of the storm surge upon the Mississippi western
coastline. Chapter 5 through 7 continue with Monday, August 29th.
They address areas such as: Katrina’s landfall near Buras, Louisiana, ward
flooding caused by breached canals as a result of storm surges, the slow
retreat of Hurricane Katrina, and the disorganization of disaster aid. Chapters
8 and 9 cover Tuesday, August 30th. These chapters look at power
failure in hospitals as well as over 1.1 million buildings, arrival of National
Guard troops to the disaster zones, fires, and continued flooding in New
Orleans. Chapters 10 and 11 follow the events of Wednesday, August 31. The
events include: The closing of the Superdome due to overpopulation of over
26,000 people, beginning of the Superdome evacuation, and instigation of
martial law by Mayor Nagin as a result of rampant looting. Chapters 12 and 13
address Thursday, September 1st. These chapters look at the
ignorance of rescue operations for many affected hospitals, the start of
efforts to plug Canal levees, and the passing of the “Emergency Supplemental
Appropriations Act” by the Senate in order to provide emergency relief aid for
the disaster zones. Chapter 14 follows the events of Friday, September 2nd
and the morning of Saturday, September 3rd. It addresses events
including: lack of control over disaster aid by organization such as FEMA,
introduction of additional National Guard troops for disaster relief, arrival
of army trucks with supplies, slow evacuation of the Superdome, and evacuation
of New Orleans hospitals. Finally, Chapter 15 finishes with Saturday, September
3rd. This final chapter includes a discussion on the arrival of
buses at the Convention Center to take people to safety and the arrival of
helicopters to evacuate the last of the stranded individuals on the Interstate
10 overpass in New Orleans. Within every chapter, Douglas Brinkley, presents
firsthand accounts of firefighters, police officers, and Civilians that were
involved in the natural disaster in order to explain how their lives and their
futures were influenced by the events that unfolded as a result of Hurricane
Katrina.
Brinkley’s
main source types for the historical narrative are newspaper reporters, news
station reports, radio reports, and transcribe oral narratives from Hurricane
Katrina survivors. The majority of the book, according to the endnotes, relies
heavily upon newspapers including: the New
York Times, New Orleans Times-Picayune,
Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia
Inquirer, Houston Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Baton Rouge Advocate, Biloxi Sun Herald, USA Today,
and the Wall Street Journal.
In
terms of strengths, Brinkley’s book provides a masterful rendition of Hurricane
Katrina’s devastation from the eyes of the individuals involved. For instance,
he provides the experience of Dr. Peter Deblieux, director of the emergency
medicine residents. Brinkley quotes Deblieux as saying:
We couldn’t be refuge
to the public. We couldn’t even get our own patients out. We were turning
people away from medical attention. You had people floating in little wading
pools, you know, Grandpa’s had a stroke, being floated by his family in a
wading pool to Charity Hospital, and we’re saying, ‘We’re not taking anybody.
You can’t come to the hospital (Brinkley, pp. 486)
Excerpts like these, from people who experienced the
devastation of Katrina, create a more comprehensive image of the natural hazard
and its effects by allowing the survivors to tell the story. By exploiting such
sources, Brinkley allows the survivors to tell the story to a certain extent,
which adds credence to his argument concerning how Katrina effected all areas
of civil society. There are only a few small weaknesses in the book. The first
is his use of overly descriptive language. For example, in a description of
Mayor C. Ray Nagin at a press briefing at City Hall in New Orleans, Brinkley
states he was “Casually dressed, his shaved head shining in the media lights…(Brinkley,
pp. 20). This kind of descriptive narration is unnecessary in addressing the
mayor’s historical importance around the events of Katrina. Another issue with the
book is the general lack of sources outside of news reports and oral
narratives. Although Hurricane Katrina is a relatively recent historical event,
the addition of more scholarly articles on the subject would have increased the
historical accuracy of his book. Brinkley even admits this shortcoming in the
Author’s Note section of his book, stating that “…the media stepped into the
fray with gutsy reporting and deep moral principles. They had some details
wrong…” (Brinkley, pp. xvii). Since the majority of his book relies on news
reports, the fact that details were wrong in some cases makes the reliability of
the historical work less than perfect.
Overall,
Douglas Brinkley’s The Great Deluge:
Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast is a well-constructed
historical narrative. It manages to bring the stories of the survivors forward
in a way that makes the reader deeply understand the impact of Hurricane
Katrina on their lives. This book is highly recommended for anyone interested
in the impact of Hurricane Katrina since it effectively incorporates history
into a captivating week-long narrative of the struggles faced by the natural
disaster.
Zachariah
J. Fure
University
of Wisconsin Eau Claire
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