Storm is comin

What with all the bad weather and policy disasters flying around, is seems appropriate to read Douglas Brinkely's the Great Deluge, the story of Katrina. Brinkely is from New Orleans so he brings a local perspective on the topic. The subtitle of the book is Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, but it should be called How Not to Manage a National Disaster. So far no one is looking good. Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco appear to be inexperienced politicos way over their heads. Brown, Cherthoff and Bush look poor as well, mishandling nearly every aspect. So far the blame lies with the leadership. In order to make their general failure more galling, he shows a number of non-profit and private sector successes like the orderly ASPCA evacuation and energy company Entergy's planning and execution.

The book is full of detail, which may be too much for some people. Brinkley never loses an opportunity to tell you more. When he mentions the Hurricane cocktail, he stops to give us Emeril's recipe. When we meet a person involved in the crisis, we get a multi-page minibio. For those less familiar with the region, this is helpful. I don't know much about the predominantly black part of the city (most of it) so reading the backstories of politicians, ministers and cops provides context for the story. Still it can become a bit much and you might find yourself skimming the frequent asides. At over 700 pages this one is really for those interested in Katrina, New Orleans or the management of disasters.

If you want a shorter hurricane book I recommend Issac's Storm (written by the same guy who wrote the Devil in White City.) It concerns the destruction of Galveston in 1900, but is told in far fewer pages than Deluge. Larson, by the way, is trying to his repeat of progress-while-dark-acts-transpire in his next book, which concerns Dr. Crippen and the inventor of the telegraph.