Douglas Brinkley, a professor of history and director of the Roosevelt Center at Tulane University, has followed up his John Kerry narrative, “Tour of Duty,” with an epic effort documenting the history of the Gulf Coast from late August to early September 2005. Meticulously noted (there’s a 12-page timeline), “The Great Deluge” recounts events leading up to and after Hurricane Katrina. Much of the story is through the eyes of survivors who lived the horrors following the storm.
The book brings home a somewhat obvious message that communities suffer when leaders are unable or too inexperienced to act during a catastrophe. The suffering caused by flooding in New Orleans nearly broke rescuers and reporters who had experienced war and natural disasters of every persuasion. One even said the situation would have made a fool of Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
In the end, it was bureaucracy that failed New Orleans, the Gulf Coast and all Americans. This book tells the tale of unspeakable horrors and inexplicable roadblocks that hindered rescuers’ time, beyond anything seen on CNN. It tells the tale of people dying as one agency waited for another to fill out paperwork. It tells the tale of trucks full of bottled water being turned away from those stranded on Interstate 10 because they didn’t have the right permits. That just scratches the surface.
This story is an eye-opener worthy of attention from any executive with emergency responsibilities as well as anyone in a leadership role in city, county or state government. It also is an eye-opener for the everyday person who believes officials always will help if there’s a natural disaster. Many did. But many others walked away or were unable to grasp the extent of the wreckage. As a Coast Guard hero of the disaster said, “Too much bureaucracy can be a big, big problem in a catastrophe.”
,Sandi Cain
