Katrina: After the Flood

(Paperback)

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Ten years in the making, Gary Rivlins Katrina is a gem of a bookwell-reported, deftly written, tightly focused.a starting point for anyone interested in how The City That Care Forgot develops in its second decade of recovery (St. Louis Post-Dispatch).

On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina made landfall in southeast Louisiana. A decade later, journalist Gary Rivlin traces the storms immediate damage, the city of New Orleanss efforts to rebuild itself, and the storms lasting effects not just on the areas geography and infrastructurebut on the psychic, racial, and social fabric of one of this nations great cities.

Much of New Orleans still sat under water the first time Gary Rivlin glimpsed the city after Hurricane Katrina as a staff reporter for The New York Times. Four out of every five houses had been flooded. The deluge had drowned almost every power substation and rendered unusable most of the citys water and sewer system. Six weeks after the storm, the city laid off half its workforceprecisely when so many people were turning to its government for help. Meanwhile, cynics both in and out of the Beltway were questioning the use of taxpayer dollars to rebuild a city that sat mostly below sea level. How could the city possibly come back

Deeply engrossing, well-written, and packed with revealing stories.Rivlins exquisitely detailed narrative captures the anger, fatigue, and ambiguity of life during the recovery, the centrality of race at every step along the way, and the generosity of many from elsewhere in the country (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). Katrina tells the stories of New Orleanians of all stripes as they confront the aftermath of one of the great tragedies of our age. This is one of the must-reads of the season (The New Orleans Advocate).

Reviews

"Gary Rivlins sharp eye for detail, grasp of the big picture and thorough reporting reveals the endless errors, egregious official conduct and exploitation that compounded the misery of Katrina victims long after the storm. It's a helluva a book that should arouse every American to demand reform before disasters strike their communities." -- David Cay Johnston, Recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, author of Divided and Perfectly Legal
Gary Rivlin is one of our nation's most sharp-eyed cultural observers, and one of our most gifted social historians. Katrina is a provocative and beautifully-rendered book that reminds us that the subject of race is always percolating below the surface. The vividly-told and haunting Katrina is vital, not only for understanding New Orleans, and what happened there over the last ten years, but for understanding how divisions of race and class are perpetuated across America today. -- Michael Eric Dyson, author of April 4, 1968
The once-great city of New Orleans wasn't destroyed just by a force of nature. Along with the hurricane came a category-5 tsunami of racism, operating at every level from armed encounters in the streets to serene indifference in the White House. Gary Rivlin, one of our finest journalists, chronicles it all in superb and riveting detail. This is something we have to know, discuss and absorbbefore the next storm comes along. -- Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickle and Dimed
"Katrina is an important book. It's important not because it's brilliantly reported or well-written, not because it uncovers everything from political maneuvering in the White House to despicable acts of selfishness, and not because it also tells stories of courage and tenacity which give meaning to the word "inspirational." It's important as a case study of both how not to handle a disaster and how to survive one. There are real lessons here." -- John M. Barry, author Rising Tide and The Great influenza
Deeply engrossing, well-written, and packed with revealing stories.a magnificently reported account of life in a broken, waterlogged city.Rivlins exquisitely detailed narrative captures the anger, fatigue, and ambiguity of life during the recovery, the centrality of race at every step along the way, and the generosity of many from elsewhere in the country. * Kirkus (starred) *
A sprawling, epic tale, filled with cold numbers and heartbreaking scenes of loss and devastation. Its also an insightful, accessible saga that follows a wide cast of participantsincluding politicians, businessmen, and everyday residentsover the course of many years.[Rivlin] doesnt pull punches as he looks at the political, economic, and social aspects of New Orleanss struggle to recover, nor does he shy away from the complicated racial themes that have always been a part of the citys history.he skillfully balances out the human elements with concrete details of the devastation and the reconstruction that has followed. For those interested in how New Orleans came to the brink of destruction and slowly fought its way back to become a thriving, even improved, metropolis, this is certainly a work worth checking out. * Publishers Weekly *
Rivlins valuable book is among the first to relate, in clear and scrupulous detail, the decisions that have brought us this far, and to identify those who made themRivlin is a sharp observer and a dogged reporter. He is unerringly compassionate toward his subjectsBut Rivlins most valuable journalistic skill is his acute sensitivity to absurdity. He is particularly piqued by the absurdity of racial and economic injustice. The New York Times Book Review
One of the must-reads of the seasonRivlin offers a good report of what happened during the storm, the bureaucratic snarls and blockages that followed and, most of all, the human cost to all New Orleanians.The New Orleans Advocate
Deeply engrossing, well-written, and packed with revealing stories.a magnificently reported account of life in a broken, waterlogged city.Rivlins exquisitely detailed narrative captures the anger, fatigue, and ambiguity of life during the recovery, the centrality of race at every step along the way, and the generosity of many from elsewhere in the country.Kirkus (starred)
[A] carefully researched, beautifully written book.San Francisco Bay View
A sprawling, epic tale, filled with cold numbers and heartbreaking scenes of loss and devastation. Its also an insightful, accessible saga that follows a wide cast of participantsincluding politicians, businessmen, and everyday residentsover the course of many years.[Rivlin] doesnt pull punches as he looks at the political, economic, and social aspects of New Orleanss struggle to recover, nor does he shy away from the complicated racial themes that have always been a part of the citys history.he skillfully balances out the human elements with concrete details of the devastation and the reconstruction that has followed. For those interested in how New Orleans came to the brink of destruction and slowly fought its way back to become a thriving, even improved, metropolis, this is certainly a work worth checking out.Publishers Weekly
"A fascinating lesson in urban planning in the face of calamity and financial shenanigans about what has been deemed the most expensive disaster in history."Booklist
Journalist Gary Rivlin sweeps from street to boardroom in this history of the aftermathAs Rivlin sharply reminds, overcoming disasters is very much an issue of governance.Nature Magazine
Sweeping and searching, Katrina is a Category Five expos of disastrous disaster relief.Florida Courier
A gem of a bookwell-reported, deftly written, tightly focused. Its a book that will appeal to the urban planner and the Mardi Gras revelerKatrina is a genuine success, and is a starting point for anyone interested in how The City That Care Forgot develops in its second decade of recovery.St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Painstakingly researchedRivlins reporting allows him to paint deep portraits of his characters and explain relationshipsRivlin does an admirable job keeping the political personal and helping readers understand how deeply and devastatingly Katrina affected everyone in the cityThe book is timed to come out a couple of weeks before the 10th anniversary of Katrina, but the timing this summer is equally important as part of the conversation America is currently having on the subject of race relations.Miami Herald
A riveting, wide-ranging but detailed account of Katrina's immediate impact and its aftermath.Tampa Bay Tribune
It is in large part because race lately imposes itself upon our national consciousness with even greater force than usual that Gary Rivlins vital, comprehensive account of Hurricane Katrinas long-term impact on the city of New Orleans comes across less as a 10-year-anniversary marker of an indelible calamity and more as an up-to-the-minute microcosm of our larger societymanages to pack into a lean, taut narrative the heartbreaking setbacks, thwarted dreams and the confounding, repeated inability of anybody in power to either get things done or transcend festering social divisionsAs with the finest works of journalism, Rivlins book deploys the tools of his trade to illuminate the segment of history he examines and make us wonder about the things we all have in common with those in New Orleans.USA Today
[Rivlin] constructs his narrative to give readers unfamiliar with the terrain a cohesive back story and illustrates the aftermath through a cross-section of people. Chicago Tribune
"Gary Rivlins sharp eye for detail, grasp of the big picture and thorough reporting reveals the endless errors, egregious official conduct and exploitation that compounded the misery of Katrina victims long after the storm. It's a helluva a book that should arouse every American to demand reform before disasters strike their communities."David Cay Johnston, Recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, author of Divided and Perfectly Legal
Gary Rivlin is one of our nation's most sharp-eyed cultural observers, and one of our most gifted social historians. Katrina is a provocative and beautifully-rendered book that reminds us that the subject of race is always percolating below the surface. The vividly-told and haunting Katrina is vital, not only for understanding New Orleans, and what happened there over the last ten years, but for understanding how divisions of race and class are perpetuated across America today.Michael Eric Dyson, author of April 4, 1968
The once-great city of New Orleans wasn't destroyed just by a force of nature. Along with the hurricane came a category-5 tsunami of racism, operating at every level from armed encounters in the streets to serene indifference in the White House. Gary Rivlin, one of our finest journalists, chronicles it all in superb and riveting detail. This is something we have to know, discuss and absorbbefore the next storm comes along.Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickle and Dimed
"Katrina is an important book. It's important not because it's brilliantly reported or well-written, not because it uncovers everything from political maneuvering in the White House to despicable acts of selfishness, and not because it also tells stories of courage and tenacity which give meaning to the word "inspirational." It's important as a case study of both how not to handle a disaster and how to survive one. There are real lessons here."John M. Barry, author Rising Tide and The Great influenza
As harrowing as it is rivetinga balanced and comprehensive chronicle.New York Daily News
"Gary Rivlins Katrina: After the Flood is as raw as the title.... Katrina

Author Bio

Gary Rivlin is a Pulitzer Prizewinning investigative reporter and the author of five books, including Katrina: After the Flood. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Mother Jones, GQ, and Wired, among other publications. He is a two-time Gerald Loeb Award winner and former reporter for the New York Times. He lives in New York with his wife, theater director Daisy Walker, and two sons.