Product Description

The ultimate inside story: how bureaucracy, politics, and a disregard of science combined to cripple—perhaps forever—a great American city

As deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, Ivor van Heerden had for years been warning state and local officials about New Orleans’s vulnerability to flooding. But like Cassandra’s, his predictions were ignored—until Hurricane Katrina hit on August 29, 2005. Suddenly, van Heerden found himself at the center of a media maelstrom. Stepping forward to challenge the official version of events, he revealed the truth about the city’s shoddy levee construction.

Now, in The Storm, van Heerden shares up-to-the-minute reporting from his investigations and connects the dots among the Army Corps of Engineers, the bureaucrats, the politicians, and the chain of events—both natural and human—that culminated in catastrophe. An epic of cutting- edge science and systemic bureaucratic failure, The Storm is the first book from a major player in the Katrina disaster and a riveting narrative that brings expertise, passion, and a human viewpoint to America’s greatest natural disaster.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #575526 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. This serious, scientific explanation of what exactly happened in the hours-and years-leading up to Hurricane Katrina's devestation of New Orleans brings a fresh perspective to a tragedy that has generated remarkably similar news accounts over the past eight months. Van Heerden, Deputy Director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, gives a passionate, rigorous account of what went wrong in New Orleans that, if admittedly non-objective, is a noble and credible call for truth and accountability Long recognized by FEMA as one of the three most likely and dangerous disasters threatening the country, the possibility of a hurricane like Katrina was ignored by corrupt politicians and discounted by residents tired of past evacuations (George, Floyd, Ivan, and Rita) that in hindsight seemed unnecessary. Technical details threaten at times to overwhelm readers interested in the human story of the storm, but van Heerden manages to navigate the narrow path that fuses scientific data with a gripping narrative worthy of a Tom Clancy thriller. Informative and emotional, Van Heerden's book sheds new light on one of the most destructive-and important-natural disasters to hit the U.S. in modern history, and is a must-read for anyone truly interested in the facts behind Hurricane Katrina.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
Disturbing -- New York Times

He’s truly one of the heroes of Hurricane Katrina. -- Anderson Cooper, CNN

Persuasive -- Chicago Tribune

[An] important book. . . . [Van Heerden is] a man with a story to get out who is gradually finding a way to do it. . . . And he does it simply, commonsensically, with illustrations to clarify his points. -- New Orleans Times-Picayune

Review
He’s truly one of the heroes of Hurricane Katrina. (Anderson Cooper, CNN)

[An] important book. . . . [Van Heerden is] a man with a story to get out who is gradually finding a way to do it. . . . And he does it simply, commonsensically, with illustrations to clarify his points. (New Orleans Times-Picayune)

Disturbing (New York Times)

Persuasive (Chicago Tribune)

Customer Reviews

Interesting look at what went wrong ;-l
The author of this book knows his stuff. He is a scientist and co-founder and deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center. He writes about what went wrong and how these same mistakes can be avoided in the future.
It's scary because a premise of the book is the probability that this kind of hurricane WILL happen again. This is a realistic look. While the storm was inevitable, he thinks that obviously if people could have gotten out, so many lives would have been saved, but the problem itself wasn't the actually storm so much as it was the failure of the levys to stay put. In his opinion, what went wrong is mainly that all levels of government didn't believe that this was could happen, so they didn't prepare. They thought this couldn't happen in their lifetime and didn't do the right things. The people in leadership positions should have disaster experience. They should have 'been through the fire' and that that experience is essential to plan.
This is a hard going book, but it's so interesting and insightful and when you read all the details, then it gives you another point of view to think about. I really liked this and know that it's an impartial look at the actuall facts rather than placing totall blame. Let's hope the right people read this well writen book.

Hard to Read, but Worth the Effort
Van Heerden is a civil engineer and LSU professor, actively involved in New Orleans disaster planning, and a resident of the New Orleans area. He (and others) had warned about possible deadly consequences prior to Katrina, and probably dwells too much in "The Storm" on those computer models and discussions. Nonetheless, he clearly makes his point that human errors made Katrina much more serious than it could have been.

An early interesting point was that per the Stafford Act of 10/00, once the President declares a national emergency, the federal government is in charge - thus, there should not have been any question about leadership. Another important point is that FEMA staffers refused to consider emergency Army assistance in erecting tent facilities for the displaced and provision of eg. health services - possibly a major benefit.

Van Heerden states that 350 miles of levees protect New Orleans. Those along the Mississippi rise 25 feet above sea level, are 300 feet thick at the base and 100 feet thick at the top - not a source of problems. The rest, however, range from 5 to 18.5 feet above sea level, and involved canals and Lake Ponchatrain. Levee failures totaled 1,050 yards, in total.

Fortunately the La. Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries prepositioned 6 large and 12 smaller boats at the Jackson Barracks of the local National Guard. This enabled them to quickly begin responding after the levee breaks. The Coast Guard's help was also invaluable - rescuing an estimated 6,000 individuals.

Meanwhile, other units of government were hampered by lack of prepositioning, having to communicate by courier, poor initiative, and turf wars with each other. Airmen at a nearby Air Force base played basketball while residents across the street waited in a Jr. High for assistance. FEMA began shipping emergency supplies Friday after the hurricane, compared to Wal-Mart's start on Sunday prior.

Van Heerden points out that wetlands can help absorb a hurricane's storm surge - however, the area seaward of New Orleans had lost over 500,000 acres of wetlands in the last few decades due to pumping out water (making land available for eg. housing), ship channel dredging, and oil/gas production.

After Katrina the Army Corp. of Engineers began cover-up efforts, claiming that the levees failed because water flowed over them. Considerable evidence by objective reviewers, however, has refuted that claim - they simply were inadequate (eg. primarily sheet steel should have gone down 50 - 65 feet below sea level (and the base of the canals) instead of only 15 feet.

Properly fixing the levees would cost an estimated $30 billion; President Bush has proposed $1.5 billion. The fix would include not only levee rebuilding/strengthening but storm surge gates, moving pumps closer to Lake Ponchatrain, and stopping wetland losses.

The Sad Truth
As a former emergency management planner, I found this book to be an excellent analysis of what really went wrong in New Orleans. It is a treatise for government officials to learn what not to do and an outline of what we as citizens should demand from our government leaders. It presents very technical information and scientific analysis in a manner that even an elected official can understand. But, beyond presenting the scientific basis of why New Orleans flooded, it presents an outline of solutions that should and must be considered. It is an great testament to the fact that some issues should be above everyday politics and that some important decisions that a government may be asked to make should be based upon science and not political considerations. This is a must read for every citizen and should be a mandatory read for every elected official.
Dr. Barksdale