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The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, by Douglas Brinkley
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Brinkley describes the sinking of New Orleans as an inevitable man-made debacle resulting from poorly designed and maintained levees and floodwalls. Three major breaches occurred in the levee system that submerged this city and its surrounding parishes even further below sea level. Approximately eighty-percent of New Orleans was flooded.
In a detailed-timeline, Brinkley highlights the chain of failures from local, state and federal responders. Mayor Ray Nagin delayed his announcement for a mandatory evacuation, leaving more than 460,000 residents in the city. Governor Kathleen Babieaux Blanco failed to send a timely request for specific Federal aid delaying Federal assistance. Many NOPD officers fled their posts. FEMA Director Michael Brown delayed any deployment of aid until a chain of command could be established. Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff didn’t think it necessary to devote his time to the disaster. And President Bush chose communications breakdown as the major factor for the delayed federal assistance.
These failures resulted in tens of thousands of people stranded for days with only a limited supply of food and water. The Superdome that served as a shelter of last resort for evacuees became a hellish scene and The Memorial Convention Center was something bordering on a prison camp. Looting and violence in the city and its surrounding parishes was out of control, Brinkley said.
The Katrina disaster resulted in 1,300 lost lives. The mismanagement of the event by all levels of the government proved to be as cruel as the disaster itself.
Synopsis by Michelle Thomas
Plan. Provide. Protect…The Sovereign Deed Promise™