Customer Reviews

The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast

5 star:		(84)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina tore into Louisiana and Mississippi much as Hurricane Andrew did to Florida over a decade earlier, wreaking devastation across the Gulf Coast. As one eyewitness is quoted, "the hurricane was like watching God and the Devil fighting...with Godzilla as referee." Aside from the massive destruction, the storm also ripped open social, economic, and political divisions nationwide and became a media spectacle impossible to forget. Tulane professor and historian Douglas Brinkley, well known for his histories Boys of Pointe Du Hoc and Tour of Duty and a native of New Orleans, delivers the first comprehensive and detailed analysis of the disaster, moving from politician to police, rescuer to rooftops.

Brinkley weaves together a gripping narrative of stories at all levels of the disaster. Analyzing the days prior to landfall, Brinkley details the multiple factors that merged together to produce the "perfect storm" that so devastated the region. The warnings from the National Hurricane Center were coming fast and furious, the danger clearly portrayed, but still people waited to leave. He faults the major political players like Mayor Ray Nagin, Governer Blanco, and Mississippi Governer Barbour for delaying mandatory evacuation orders and having no comprehensive evacuation plan in place to remove those who didn't have transportation, mainly the poor and elderly. Nagin receives an especially critical eye, as does the the New Orleans Police Department. Leaving no stone unturned, Brinkley hits the politicians in FEMA, DHS, and in Washington for their failures to understand the seriousness of the storm's impact and react accordingly. In doing so, Brinkley acts with the critical eye of a historian rather than of partisan politics. In this story no politician is a hero. Brinkley's admiration is for the men and women of the Coast Guard, the NOLA homeboys, the Cajun Navy, and the other ordinary Americas who took part in the relief effort.

Having experienced the horrors of Katrina first hand in the city of New Orleans gives Brinkley's writing a perspective unmatched by current scholarship and media. When he discusses the flood waters rising, the streets slowly sinking under a brown wave, and the misery of the people stuck in it, he is speaking from first hand experience. Brinkley was there from beginning to end, suffering through the storm with other residents, taking part in rescue efforts, and recording the stories that would make up a big part of this book. Though he does not discuss his personal experience, his perspective gives the book an instant credibility and lends weight to his analysis of what went right and what went wrong. There are moments when his survivor's anger competes with the historian's judgement, but that emotion gives the narrative its power.

Having been written in under a year there are sure to be elements of the story that are left untold, much to Brinkley's regret as he notes in the introduction. In later years when more government documents are realized, and more interviews are conducted, he will hopefully release an updated edition. For now though, this is THE book of Katrina. Brinkley writes smoothly and with an elegance that moves the narrative at a fast pace. The Great Deluge is so gripping a story that it reads almost as fiction; its easy to forget that it all happened, live and in color, in front of an entire nation. Brinkley delivers an emotional and powerful story of danger, disaster, and survival that is sure to become one of the definitive works on the subject, and is a book that is important for everyone to read. Highly recommended, one of the Top 5 books of the year.

A.G. Corwin
St. Louis, MO

"The Great Deluge : Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast" certainly pulls no punches in its across the board criticism of all concerned parties. While most at the time turned this into a societal battle of rich vs. poor, white vs. black, Author Douglas Brinkley has more than enough ammunition to aim at President Bush, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, Michael Brown, the former FEMA director, Mayor Ray Nagin, and Governor Blanco. In fact a war of words has erupted between Brinkley and Nagin in light of some of the comments Brinkley makes about Nagin.

Some of Brinkleys accounts needlessly border on the melodramatic. There was no extra drama that needed to be added to the actual and factual accounts of what happened to New Orleans. The human tragedy speaks for itself. Readers will experience many layers of feelings as they read the book. You'll shed tears over the loss of life, be angered by the poor response from all factions, and rejoice in the triumph of spirit in how the people endured, and how hard rescuers worked.

Brinkley successfully avoids falling into politicizing this disaster and no one who reads the book thoughtfully can accuse him of having an agenda other than wanting to tell the true story. Thankfully he is smart enough to let so many of those directly involved...the survivors...and the rescuers...tell their own stories. The various running narratives, and 700 plus pages can make it a bit of a chore at times to follow but this is a story that needed to be told and told truthfully.

I have been filming a documentary regarding Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath entitled "New Orleans Story." We interviewed Mr. Brinkley when he was writing his very first chapter of The Great Deluge. Douglas was very engaged in the investagative process and was eager to learn all that we had discovered and were discovering during our one on one interviews with key players to this historical disaster. We also interviewed Douglas Brinkley a few days before he released his book to the public.

Having now read the book, I must verify through our own on-camera interviews with many of the same individucals (such as Mayor Nagin, Governor Blanco, former Fema Director Michael Brown), that Douglas' reported accounts have merit. The information was taken directly from those who were in the best position to opine. Yes it is true that others have different perspectives, but we have yet to see any evidence that dispute the accruracy of the content of The Great Deluge.

As a fellow New Orleanian who also worked to chronical the events in as much of a contemporaneous manner as possible, I wish to congradulate Douglas Brinkley on his efforts. I further strongly recommend The Great Deluge.

There are numerous factual errors, for example: Marconi canal... Chalmette bisected by the MRGO... London Ave canal flooded the 9th ward... 9th ward 20 blocks east of the 17th street canal... Mobile & D.C. in the same time zone... 17ft floodwall in Galveston built before the 1900 hurricane. Those are minor errors compared to misreporting, for instance, about events at Tulane and Charity hospitals.

It reads like an editorial and there is no attempt to disguise Brinkley's opinions. Perhaps it is interesting to those who do not know NOLA. To this lifelong resident, it is offensive that someone who has held himself out as having intimate knowledge of NOLA blunders so pitifully.

The accounts of individuals who participated in rescues were interesting.

In his rush to publish what in many ways is nothing more than a compilation of news reports, Brinkley's sloppiness led me to question the legitimacy of much that he wrote.

Breach of Faith is a more thoughtful account of the Katrina disaster. It was written by a reporter for the Times Picayune (the local newspaper for which I have no respect and therefore no interest in promoting one of its own).

Douglas Brinkley's "The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast" is an excellent, but flawed, telling of the Hurricane Katrina story. Brinkley, a New Orleans resident, wrote this book in the months following the storm. He weaves first-person accounts into this long book (over 600 pages) and freely adds analysis - and blame - into his story.

Brinkley's story is based primarily on contemporary media accounts of the hurricane and its aftermath. Some of his more in-depth stories, though, are based on extensive interviews that he conducted with many of the survivors. Although billed as the story of "New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast," this book focuses almost exclusively on New Orleans, especially during the days after Katrina - a "flaw" Brinkley freely admits. There are of course many stories of terror as people rode out the storm or the unexpected flooding following the storm. Brinkley tells how groups of individual citizens - groups such as the "NOLA Homeboys" and the "Cajun Navy," responded immediately to the flooding in New Orleans and began saving people. He tells the personal stories of the impoverished, of doctors, and even of Fats Domino. Brinkley also extols the many corporations that helped with the rescues and recovery efforts, from the local Acadian Ambulance Company that helped rescue hundreds of flood victims to companies like Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, and others that not only contributed millions in immediate aid but guaranteed paychecks (and even provided housing) for their displaced employees.

Brinkley also spent a great deal of effort analyzing what happened and why it did. I found this surprising in a book written so soon after the event and, when I started reading this book, I expected only a rote telling of the story. This is both one of the strengths and one of the weaknesses of the book. Brinkley is critical of almost all levels of government, from Mayor Nagin (who he portrays worse than even the worst critics could have imagined) to Governor Blanco to FEMA/Homeland Security and all the way to President Bush. At times, this analysis is welcome because it adds depth to the story, and fortunately Brinkley does not shy away from trying to assess what went wrong.

However, some of Brinkley's analysis falls apart because he does not appear to understand many of the intricate details, probably because the book was written so quickly after the storm. Brinkley makes factual mistakes about the dynamics of hurricanes. He also does not understand the Posse Comitatus Act, the National Response Plan or seem to understand the National Guard's or Regular Army's role - and limitations - in this plan. He makes no mention of the National Guard Emergency Mutual Assistance Compact, nor does he attempt to explain why FEMA bungled so many things. And finally, while he mercilessly criticizes Nagin and the New Orleans Police Department throughout the book, Brinkley (who wrote a fawning biography of John Kerry during his campaign against President Bush) ultimately concludes the book by laying most of the blame for Hurricane Katrina at the President's feet. In making this conclusion, Brinkley laments that racism and "class-ism" were responsible for many of the Katrina problems. However, recent research has shown that, proportionately, more New Orleans whites than blacks died during Katrina (based on Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals statistics) and that the middle-class died at the same rate that the poor did (based on an analysis done by the Los Angeles Times).

One other glaring problem with the book was the lack of maps. A story such as this is predicated on spatial relationships, and for those not familiar with the intricacies of the New Orleans neighborhoods, canals, highways, and surrounding communities, a decent set of maps would have helped tell the story much, much better.

Despite these criticisms, this is a great book that should be read by every American. Brinkley's great writing is rich in detail and he truly brings the people of New Orleans alive. And more importantly, Brinkley brings to life their stories of struggling, suffering, and survival.

Speaking as a first reponder who has witnessed many of these events personally, I must say that no other individual has shed more light on the true events following the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as historian Douglas Brinkley.

Cutting through the governmental cover-ups, deception and lies, Brinkley gets to the heart of the matter in this refreshingly honest and straight forward account of what was really happening at the time. Brinkley allows the reader to share the human ordeals of the true heroes as he recounts the personal experiences of Coast Guard and Wildlife & Fisheries personnel, and citizen first responders. These are their stories as seen through their eyes and told in their own words.

Unafraid to hold accountable those still in power, The Great Deluge allows the reader to escape the masterful spin of FEMA and The Bush Administration as well as attempts to hide Ray Nagin's mental breakdown during the Cresent City's most crucial hours.

Thank-you, Mr. Brinkley. You have given your city, country, and state one of the greatest gifts they could receive, the truth.

Great account of individuals at the hospitals who decided to go out on their own to try to evacuate and not wait on government.

Brinkley's book is very well researched and I completely enjoyed all of the heroic accounts of those who help out their fellow man.

Being a tourist there stranded by a bad decision by Delta Airlines (Brinkley is completely accurate in this detail), I can say that there was one obvious mistake - there weren't 20,000 people at the convention center on Tuesday. We were there on Wednesday morning and there were only about 500-1000 people at that point, all thirsting for leadership along with water and MREs. Starting mid day on Wednesday, people started flocking to the convention center in droves and the count could have reached 20,000 LATE on Wednesday evening, lucky for us we were able to exit - thanks to people we met from the Marriott Coroporation.

Maps would have been appreciated by the reader to help them put the puzzle pieces together as they sat on the edges of their seats reading this excellent account of "A Failure of Initiative". I also think Brinkley hinted but wasn't strong enough to point a finger at the one who should bear most of this blame, Governor Blanco.

Brinkley succeeds at honestly and objectively recounting what happened, what went right, and what went wrong during what will long be remembered as a moment when government at all levels failed us, but ordinary citizens rose to the occasion. Nobody who deserves criticism is spared, and that is how it should be.

The opening portion of the book describes how the Louisiana SPCA efficiently evacuated hundreds of animals well in advance of the storm. The subtle message? A small private organization made up mostly of volunteers had a coherent and effective evacuation plan, but the government did not.

More than just a recitation of what happened, Brinkley describes at length the history of New Orleans, particularly with respect to more than a century of attempting to protect the city from flooding. He also covers the gradual coastal erosion that made New Orleans much more vulnerable to catastrophic flooding. This helps the reader better understand why the city flooded when Katrina hit.

As the title notes, Brinkley also covers the Mississippi Gulf Coast, which was so often lost in media reports at the time, partly due to lack of access to those areas and also due to the large scale drama unfolding at the same time in New Orleans.

This is an important book. The details of this chapter in American history need to be accurately recorded for ourselves and for future generations. Brinkley has succeeded in doing just that.

As a New Oreleanian and an evacuee still in the outer darkness away from New Orleans, I picked up Brinkley's book as soon as I heard it was out. I was all prepared not to like the book since
I thought he was a little too early out of the gate with it.
However, I really enjoyed it ( if "enjoy" is really the word given the subject matter ) and couldn't put it down.

At places in the book all my anger and sadness came back. Brinkley is a surprisingly good writer. The book is sort of long, but well worth the time. His accounting of the heros and villains in the saga makes for intrigue aplenty.

My only negative comments are small. First, I think he should have confined the book to New Orleans and done another one on the MS Gulf Coast because the stories while both tragic in the extreme were very different. Second, he kept using the term, Big Deluge, as if it was the commonly used termn for the hurricane. Until I read his book, I had never heard the term.

But these are very minor complaints. If you want to read an extremely good account of Katrina, and especialy if you liked the way John Barry told the story of the Great Flood of 1927 in his book, Rising Tide, you will enjoy the Great Deluge

The Great Deluge is more a social history of the disaster associated with Katrina than a detail in what went wrong with planning and recovery. If you want to know primarily about the victims and rescuers and the horrible post storm conditions, than this is your book. The failure of government is addressed fairly well; however that is interlaced around the biographies of the victims and rescuers in this 624-page story and it may not be enough detail for those fascinated with the government response. The description of the flooding is incredulous along with the victims attempt at survival that ends up in overwhelmed facilities such as the convention center and superdome. Tragedies abound as well as rumors that are seemingly out of control particularly when the overwhelmed Police Chief fuels rumors perhaps due to fatigue and what Brinkley describes as his abandonment by New Orleans mayor for days. Heroes abound from the Coast Guard, Louisiana National Guard and the rescue flotilla of Louisiana Game and Fisheries officials and general citizens that improvise rescue navies and supplies. The total loss of control in some areas without the apparent missing New Orleans police (a number do stay and help) is mesmerizing and hard to figure as Brinkley tells of the wanton destruction of businesses and looting along with the odd behavior of a number of looters defiling areas in gross fashion for no other reason than gross resentment. The failure of government is detailed sporadically throughout the book starting with Nagin as mayor. Leaving fleets of school buses in flood zones is shocking along the wrestling match between Governor Blanco and President Bush over State or Federal control of New Orleans with the military is grossly disappointing since the ultimate is why does it matter, just help. The only criticism of the book is that it does seem to ramble as you zigzag back and forth from one family or rescuers to another. Also, the two or three pages about Jimmy Buffett writing or singing a song about the devastation seems less interesting than reporting more on Brown's lack of grasp of what FEMA could do along with Homeland Chertoff's inability to get directly involved from the beginning. The other point, Brinkley does a good job laying out New Orleans officials but he should question how prepared are other coastal resort cities to politically order a timely evacuation and how prepared are they to evacuate their urban poor? It's a national question not confined to the gulf coast. Note that the book starts with local animal shelters evacuating their charges early in an coordinated effort and they are described several chapters later as providing animal rescue while all government entities (local, state, federal) fail to timely help the human masses. By that example and several more, the author infers that small organizations reacted better than the government. In any case, the impact of Katrina was catastrophically overwhelming. But, as the author rightly implies, the country could and should have done far better than what happened in New Orleans.