City Adrift: New Orleans Before & After Katrina
This objective investigation conducted by seven outstanding journalists is an overwhelming indictment of the failure on the part of government and nongovernment agencies to respond to both the threat and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Sara Shipley Hiles, a journalist on environmental issues, explores the natural and man-made environmental factors that contributed to the catastrophe; she further explains the negative impact of the Bush administration's downsizing, in 2004, of a Louisiana coastal restoration plan. Jim Morris details how an eviscerated Federal Emergency Management Agency, despite adequate warning, tragically failed to evacuate the population. Another piece by Curtis Wilkie details the heritage of corrupt state and local politics that led to a civic breakdown and an immobilized judicial system. According to this very disheartening examination, New Orleans, despite federal promises, is now less able to withstand a hurricane than it was in 2005. Graphic black-and-white photos throughout are a haunting reminder of the television images of a helpless and dying American city that horrified the country in 2005. This excellent exposé of corruption and incompetence, conducted under the auspices of the Center for Public Integrity (a nonpartisan organization that sponsors investigative journalism) should lead to calls for future accountability.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.