Path of Destruction: The Devastation of New Orleans and the Coming Age of Superstorms [Hardcover]

John McQuaid (Author), Mark Schleifstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 16, 2006

At 5:02 A.M. on August 29, 2005, Power Went Out in the Superdome. Not long after, wind ripped giant white rubber sheets off the roof and sent huge shards of debris flying toward Uptown. Rivulets of rainwater began finding their way down through the ceiling, dripping and pouring into the stands, the mezzanine, and the football field. Without ventilation, the air began to get gamy with the smell of sweat and garbage. The bathrooms stopped working. Many people slept; others waited, mostly in silence.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John McQuaid and Mark Schleifstein wrote the New Orleans Times-Picayune's award-winning series 'Washing Away,' the definitive account of the Gulf Coast's grave hurricane risks. They were also the lead reporters on a series about global fisheries that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1997. Schleifstein abandoned his Lakeview home in the flood but remains in the New Orleans area.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1 edition (August 16, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031601642X
• ISBN-13: 978-0316016421
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #996,361 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I second that WOW!, August 17, 2006

By 

Victoria S. Kolakowski (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Path of Destruction: The Devastation of New Orleans and the Coming Age of Superstorms (Hardcover)

This is an amazing book, a real page turner. I lived in Louisiana for eight years, and the book really captures a lot of the history, the culture and the realities that led up to the tragedy that befell my beloved former home on my birthday last year.

The narrative is riveting without insulting the intelligence of the reader.

The tragedy of Katrina began many years earlier, and this book helps place events in context. Fully a third of the book recounts history prior to the first raindrops hitting Louisiana.

The book steers a nice balance. It is deep enough to illuminate the political, economic and engineering factors that created the mess, but not so dry as to make it stuffy. It really presents a compelling case study in public policy and illustrates how important geography is to understanding our future.

It is clear that the authors' familiarity with the subject going back several years helped with the background portion of the book. These guys really know this stuff.

This should be a model for a popular account of a major event.

I know that some people may be unhappy that the book skirts over material supporting the second half of the title ("Coming Age of Superstorms") and others may object to any discussion of that topic, but I think that the authors do a good job placing their argument within the framework of mainstream thinking about climate change.

My only complaint is that I wish that there were more maps.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!, August 7, 2006

By 

Trish (Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Path of Destruction: The Devastation of New Orleans and the Coming Age of Superstorms (Hardcover)

I was amazed at how much information was included in this book -- broad historical perspective, day-by-day, hour-by-hour accounts of the days immediately following the storm -- both what was happening in New Orleans and what was happening in Washington, plus scientific background on how hurricanes form. I highly recommend it!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful, Informative and Readable, September 15, 2006

By 

N. S. Alito "Dr. Noe" (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Path of Destruction: The Devastation of New Orleans and the Coming Age of Superstorms (Hardcover)

Path of Destruction provides an in-depth background to the geographic, technical and political contributions to the Katrina disaster. It describes the natural challenges of settling on the active Mississippi delta, the innately human bone-headed attempts to protect settlements on an increasingly vulnerable marshland, and the classic political forces (farces?) over the centuries that made problems worse, and it does it all in a very readable way.

I grew up in New Orleans, and visit family there often, so I thought I understood the growing threat from hurricanes, yet McQuaid and Schleifstein filled in the gaps, and corrected common misconceptions; it is impressively well researched. (The horrendous tale of the response to the great Mississippi River Flood of 1927 alone is worth the price of admission.)

This is what I would call a "crossover book": Even if you're sick of hearing about Katrina-this and New Orleans-that, this book is interesting and readable enough to earn space on your "classic studies of human behavior" bookshelf.