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May 29, 2007
Breach of Faith
I just finished reading Jed Horne's Breach of Faith.
This is probably the first overall look at Katrina that I've read, other than maybe Cooper & Bloch's Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security (which was primarily focused on the federal government's response to the disaster so is not really so general).
Breach of Faith is strongest when it relates personal anecdotes, when it really digs into the real-life calculus that goes into deciding whether to evacuate or not, and how the storm and resulting flood affected rich and poor equally, though in different ways.
The book ends in the spring of 2006, so already much of the recovery narrative seems somewhat dated. He talks about the mayoral election but does not discuss the outcome; regardless, Nagin's performance is not given a pass. Horne holds out his harshest criticism for the Feds, obviously, but not in the detail that Cooper and Bloch do. And for some perplexing reason, it seems Horne has a wee crush on Governor Blanco; she comes across as a politically shrewd tower of strength who is merely misunderstood by the media...clearly a year's worth of Road Home headlines would have sucked the wind out of that angle if Horne could have seen into the future a little.
There's also a lot of fawning over Ivor van Heerden and Bob Bea, two characters whose reliability and motives are still open issues, in my view.
It's a worthy read simply for the stories of regular people, though. I was enthralled during those chapters, less so for the later material about floodwall forensics, Bea, Ivor, and the Corps, which regular followers of the issue in the paper and on blogs will find a little redundant and shallow.
(One complaint which others might find minor, but which I found highly distracting: he consistently fails to capitalize things like "coast guard", "army corps", etc., even though he is clearly talking about THE Coast Guard and THE Army Corps of Engineers. Drove me up a wall, it did. Also misspelled a few street names. Arggggg.)
Posted by ray at May 29, 2007 10:34 PM | Permalink
Categories: [books | katrina | new orleans ]
Comments
hey Ray.. slightly related.. did you see the 60 minutes from last weekend... segment on the coast guard. Im sure you can get it on youtube... its pretty eye opening about the dysfunctional attempt at upgrading the coast guard.
Posted by: bicyclemark at May 30, 2007 6:37 AM
I haven't seen that, but I'll look for it.
My dad was in the Coast Guard, so I get irritated when they don't get all due respect.
Posted by: Ray at May 30, 2007 8:09 AM
Show up after Katrina, they did. (If you can Yoda, I can Yoda;).
Posted by: Sophmom at May 30, 2007 1:51 PM
I'm going to pick that one up next time I'm at Octavia Books.
I tell people all the time that the only two government agencies that can be proud of the work they did in Hurricane Katrina are the National Weather Service and the Coast Guard. Fact: the Katrina rescue operation carried out by the Coast Guard was the largest in their history. They have a number of how many people they rescued, but I doubt it's correct--they probably helped many more.
Peace,
Tim
Posted by: Tim at June 15, 2007 9:33 PM
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