Levees Not War

On Our Bookshelf

We recommend award-winning author Tom Piazza’s eloquent tribute to his adopted hometown, Why New Orleans Matters.

• Barry, John M. RISING TIDE: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America. Simon & Schuster, 1998
• Bergal, Jenni, et al. CITY ADRIFT: New Orleans Before and After Katrina: A Center for Public Integrity Investigation. LSU Press, 2007
• Brinkley, Douglas. THE GREAT DELUGE: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. William Morrow, 2006
• Campanella, Richard. BIENVILLE’S DILEMMA: A Historical Geography of New Orleans. Center for Louisiana Studies, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2008.
• Clark, Joshua. HEART LIKE WATER: Surviving Katrina and Life in Its Disaster Zone: A Memoir. Free Press, 2007
• Colten, Craig E. AN UNNATURAL METROPOLIS: Wresting New Orleans from Nature. LSU Press, 2005
• Cooper, Christopher, and Robert Block. DISASTER: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security. Times Books, 2006 (Click here to read our interview.)
• Emanuel, Kerry. DIVINE WIND: The History and Science of Hurricanes. Oxford University Press, 2005
• Fischetti, Mark. “Drowning New Orleans.” Scientific American, October, 2001
• Hallowell, Christopher. HOLDING BACK THE SEA: The Struggle on the Gulf Coast to Save America. Harper Perennial, 2001
• Horne, Jed. BREACH OF FAITH: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City. Random House, 2006
• Knapp, Bevil, and Mike Dunne. AMERICA’S WETLAND: Louisiana’s Vanishing Coast. (Photos by Knapp, text by Dunne.) LSU Press, 2005
• Kolbert, Elizabeth. FIELD NOTES FROM A CATASTROPHE: Man, Nature, and Climate Change. Bloomsbury, 2006
• McPhee, John. “The Control of Nature: Atchafalaya.” The New Yorker, February 23, 1987
• McQuaid, John, and Mark Schleifstein. PATH OF DESTRUCTION: The Devastation of New Orleans and the Coming Age of Superstorms. Little, Brown, 2006. (Click here to read our interview.)
• Piazza, Tom. WHY NEW ORLEANS MATTERS. HarperCollins, 2005
• Rose, Chris. 1 Dead in Attic: After Katrina Simon & Schuster, 2007
• Tidwell, Mike. BAYOU FAREWELL: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana’s Cajun Coast. Pantheon, 2003
• Tidwell, Mike. THE RAVAGING TIDE: Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, and the Coming Death of America’s Coastal Cities. Free Press, 2006
• Times-Picayune staff. KATRINA: The Ruin and Recovery of New Orleans. (Illustrated.) Times-Picayune, 2006
• Van Heerden, Ivor, and Mike Bryan. THE STORM: What Went Wrong and Why During Hurricane Katrina: The Inside Story from One Louisiana Scientist. Viking, 2006 (Click here to read our interview.)
• Worldwatch Institute. VITAL SIGNS 2006-2007: The Trends That Are Shaping Our Future. W. W. Norton, 2006
• Yoes, Patrick. CHEST DEEP AND RISING: The Hurricane Katrina Nightmare. Ithaca Press, 2006

Essential Resources

• Girding for the Storms | Times-Picayune’s preparedness guide to the 2009 hurricane season (June 1–Nov. 30): contraflow maps, disaster kit checklists, and more . . .
• Flash Flood | Katrina blow-by-blow | Interactive graphic by Times-Picayune
• Improving the Odds | Times-Picayune’s Hurricane Season 2007 Storm Watch includes checklists, directory of services, phone numbers, web sites, etc.
• Last Chance: Saving Louisiana’s Coast | 2007 Times-Picayune special report
• Washing Away | Prize-winning, prophetic 2002 Times-Picayune special report
• NOVA : “Storm That Drowned a City” | Comprehensive, in-depth series
• Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana
• Louisiana’s Coastal Wetlands Loss | From 1930 to 2005 (Center for Cooperative Research)
• George Monbiot on Climate Change
• Katrina, Rita | Times-Picayune front pages, Aug.-Sept. 2005
• Times-Picayune Katrina Archive
• Katrina Timeline | Center for Cooperative Research
• Katrina Timeline | Think Progress
• Times-Picayune Hurricane Center
• LSU Hurricane Center
• Katrina: The Long Road Back | MSNBC + Newsweek coverage, multimedia, blogs
• Campaign to Save Coastal Louisiana (America’s Wetland)
• When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts | Spike Lee’s acclaimed 4-hour documentary (HBO, 2006)
• New Orleans Contraflow Map | West to Baton Rouge, North to Jackson or Hattiesburg
• Katrina Reading Room | Brookings Institution | Fact-based studies on recovery, housing assistance, emergency response, etc.
• Weather Advisory Links
• Louisiana State Emergency Contact Numbers | NOAA Extreme Weather Information Sheet
• Hurricane Survival Checklist
• National Hurricane Center | National Weather Service (NOAA)
• New Orleans-Baton Rouge weather radar | National Weather Service
• Life Since Katrina | NYT interactive feature: Life in New Orleans since 8/29
• Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation | ‘Save Our Lake’ | ‘Save Our Coast’
• Multiple Lines of Defense Strategy | Comprehensive Recommendations to Sustain Coastal Louisiana | By CRCL + Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation
• Coastal Restoration Resource Center | Great Links! @ Save Our Coast (Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation)
• RepowerAmerica.org | 100% clean electricity within 10 years
• We Campaign (WeCanSolveIt.org) | Project of Alliance for Climate Protection
• Environmental Defense Fund on Restoring Coastal Louisiana
• DotEarth | NYT enviro blog
• Gulf of Mexico Alliance | Tex.La.Miss.Ala.Fla.
• New Orleans Contraflow Map | West to Baton Rouge, North to Jackson or Hattiesburg

Read All About It

• NOVA : “The Man Who Knew” | Hurricane expert Ivor van Heerden saw Katrina coming for years
• Why the Levee Broke | by Will Bunch (Attytood)
• A Dangerous and Deafening Silence | by David Sirota (TomPaine)
• U.C. Berkeley/NSF Report Cites Poor Levees, ‘Dysfunctional Government’ in Katrina Failure | by Sheila Grissett
• Why New Orleans Needs Saving | by Newt Gingrich, John M. Barry (Time)
• Centuries of Missteps Sealed City’s Fate | by Bob Marshall (Times-Picayune)
• New Orleans: A Geopolitical Prize | by George Friedman (Stratfor)
• Rotten to the Corps | by Michael Greenwald (Grist)
• New Faraway Sensors Warn of Emerging Hurricane’s Strength | NASA + Office of Naval Research work may sharpen predictions of storm intensity
• Is Global Warming Making Hurricanes Worse? | National Geographic News
• Disappearing World: Global Warming Claims Tropical Island | For the first time, an inhabited island has disappeared beneath rising seas.
• After Katrina: Redemption and Rebuilding | Special Report in March ’09 American Prospect
• New Orleans: A Perilous Future | National Geographic, August 2007 cover story
• Hurricane Katrina: Two Years Later | TIME Special Feature (Aug. 2007)
• Linking to New Orleans | By Michael Tisserand @ The Nation

Government and Independent Reports

• The New Orleans Index: Tracking Recovery in the Region | Brookings Institution study sees need for “a strong federal, state, and local partnership” to sustain recovery
• Risk Assessment of New Orleans Hurricane Protection System | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• Tracking Recovery of New Orleans and the Metro Area | Greater New Orleans Community Data Center
• Corps’ Recommendation to Close MR-GO | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Draft Integrated Final Report and Legislative Environmental Impact Statement for the Mississippi River Deep-Draft De-Authorization
• Hurricane Katrina: One Year Later: What Must We Do Next? | American Society of Civil Engineers
• Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina | Rep. Tom Davis, Chairman; U.S. House of Representatives
• ASCE Reports on Katrina and Hurricane Preparedness | American Society of Civil Engineers
• The New Orleans Hurricane Protection System: What Went Wrong and Why? | American Society of Civil Engineers
• Hurricane Katrina: Why Did the Levees Fail? | U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
• Text of President’s Address to the Nation from Jackson Square | Sept. 15, 2005-two weeks after Katrina
• Katrina Reading Room | Brookings Institution | Fact-based studies on recovery, housing assistance, emergency response, etc.
• Hurricane Pam Exercise, July 2004 | Storm-surge animations and related information from famous disaster response exercise

Agencies & Political Offices

• “Rebuild New Orleans” Resources List
• “Katrina Health” (State of Louisiana)
• Shelter + Housing Assistance (State of Louisiana)
• Louisiana Family Assistance
• Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District
• American Society of Civil Engineers
• SE Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East
• NOLA Environmental | Army Corps of Engineers compliance data bank
• Louisiana Energy Facts Newsletter | Louisiana Department of Natural Resources
• Louisiana Department of Natural Resources
• Hurricane Recovery Advisory Committee | advises New Orleans City Council
• NationalService.gov | Corporation for National & Community Service
• State + Federal Assistance Agencies
• City of New Orleans Info
• Mayor’s “Bring New Orleans Back” Commission
• La. Governor Bobby Jindal
• La. Senator Mary L. Landrieu
• La. Senator David Vitter

Proposed Legislation

• Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act of 2007 [S.1668] | Introduced by Sen. Chris Dodd on June 20, 2007; co-sponsored by Sen. Mary Landrieu
• Senator Mary Landrieu’s Gulf Coast Protection Plan
• Senators Edward Kennedy and Judd Gregg’s Gulf Coast Rebuilding Plan

Katrina Photographs, Films, and Videos

• Edward P. Richards (storm damage)
• Edward P. Richards
• Stephen Nelson (geological) / Tulane
• Coleen Perilloux Landry
• KatrinaDestruction.com | extensive collection by IllinoisPhoto.com
• Photographs by William Greiner | See his Bayou TV photo on “How to Help,” left column
• Alan Chin: “Katrina Aftermath: And Then I Saw These” | B&W’s of immediate aftermath. (See his photo on our “How to Help” page.)
• video : “Peace Takes Courage” Katrina #2 | by Ava Lowery, Aug. 23, 2006
• video : “All I Have-The Remix” [Snow Patrol | “You’re All I Have”] | vlog (video blog) by mblair @ DailyKos
• video : U2 and Green Day: “The Saints Are Coming” | performed at Saints’ 1st game back in Superdome, Sept. 25, 2006
• video : “Peace Takes Courage” Katrina #1 | by Ava Lowery
• When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts | Spike Lee’s acclaimed 4-hour documentary (HBO, 2006)
• video : “Class of ’05” | video & song by Joel Moore
• Sandra Russell Clark | New Orleans native
• Jeff Lamb @ Flikr
• JeffLambPhoto.com
• Frank Relle Photography | beautiful, haunting, weirdly lit Lower Ninth Ward scenes
• PhotoNOLA2 | December 2007 : gala, exhibits, workshops, portfolio reviews
• New Orleans Photo Alliance | Discussion board for photographic community
• Jeff Lamb’s blog : jlp/New Orleans | New Orleans 19th century historic vernacular architecture
• NOPL Louisiana Division Photograph Collection | City Archives/Louisiana Division, New Orleans Public Library
• Gilles Lorin | See “Returning Home after Katrina”
• J. R. Portman Photography
• video : New Orleans: A Bowl of Distinction
• video : John Mellencamp’s “Jena” | via YouTube
• video : Katrina | by The Katrinacrat + Reaper Speak
• video : New Orleans-We Shall Overcome | Springsteen sings ‘We Shall Overcome’ over Scout Prime’s footage of 9th Ward, N.O. East, Lakeview, Gentilly, Mid-City, and Miss., filmed March 2006
• video : Katrina: A Man Made Disaster | Scout Prime’s 1st Katrina anniversary video | archival footage + ‘Louisiana 1927′
• video : Pre-Dawn New Orleans Katrina Footage | ‘Weather Paparazzi’ films Canal Street, Quarter in early hours of Aug. 29
• video : Satellite-Eye View of Katrina, Aug. 25-29 | Katrina’s passage from Atlantic into Gulf of Mexico, up to Louisiana, Mississippi
• video : Hurricane Katrina: The Drive: New Orleans’s Lower 9th Ward | New Orleans Video Access Center (NOVAC)’s narrated tour through 4 devastated neighborhoods
• Levees.org videos | On 8/29 Commission, MR-GO, What Went Wrong . . . | with Ivor van Heerden, Harry Shearer, etc.
• video : Katrina Footage by Vaccarella Family, Meraux, St. Bernard Parish | See Meraux, St. Bernard Parish, on 8/29/05 [Thanks to posting on < http://noitsjustme.blogspot.com/ >]

Infrastructure Reading Room

It’s Time to Rebuild America
Felix Rohatyn and Warren Rudman’s plan for spending more—and wisely—on our decaying infrastructure

ASCE Report Finds U.S. Infrastructure in Dire Straits
Levees graded D- | $2.2 trillion needed over next 5 years

Investing in America’s Infrastructure: Putting People to Work, Restoring Optimism
Senators Dodd and Hagel sponsor bill for national infrastructure bank | Bob Herbert, NYT

Conservative Columnist David Brooks Calls for ‘Long-Term Investment’ in U.S. Infrastructure
National Mobility Project for economy, energy, transportation

Infrastructure, Baby, Infrastructure!
Federal government should go on spending spree | Not a time for budget balancing | Joe Conason @ Salon

Paul Krugman: A Good Time for Infrastructure Spending
‘Now is not the time to worry about the deficit.’

Infrastructure Bank Plan Gaining Attention and Momentum
Elana Schor @ Streetsblog.org

Public Works: When ‘Big Government’ Plays Its Role
FDR had it right, creating jobs and serving the greater good | by Adam Cohen, NYT

Greening Our Infrastructure
Public works program should help reduce reliance on automobiles

(video) Rachel Maddow: Tax Cuts Before Infrastructure (Again?!)
Rachel talks to Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR), defender of infrastructure spending

Iraq War Resource Center

War Torn | NYT special series
121 cases of U.S. vets charged with killing(s) after return from Iraq/Afghan wars

Casualties of War: Faces of the Dead
Stories of 3,925+ U.S. soldiers who have died in Iraq War (NYT)

(video) ‘Bush’s War,’ by Frontline (PBS)
Epic 2-part series on how the Iraq War began and how it has been fought—in Iraq and in the U.S. government

“No End in Sight” (video)
A new documentary about the Iraq War

(video): “One Day of the Iraq War”
The Cost of War: $720 million every day, or $500,000 a minute

Barack Obama: My Plan for Iraq
“It’s time to end this war.” | NYT Op-Ed

Iraq War May Have Increased Worldwide Energy Costs by $6 Trillion
Without Iraq war, says economist, oil would be $40 per barrel | 6X increase since 2002

What Else Could $611 Billion Buy?
Boston Globe finds constructive uses for billions spent on Iraq War

Iraq War Is Killing Our Economy
A review of lost income, jobs, opportunities in a nation facing recession

The War and the Recession
Dean Baker blames housing bubble and Greenspan more than deficit spending on war

U.S. Economy a ‘$3 trillion’ Casualty of War in Iraq
Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz says ‘day of reckoning . . . has now come’ | 5-yr-old war’s cost could exceed WWII’s $5 trillion

(video): $3 Trillion Shopping Spree
By Robert Greenwald/Brave New Films | Can you squander $3 trillion better than President Bush?

The $3,000,000,000,000 War Is a Domestic Issue

Iraq War ‘Caused Slowdown in U.S.’ Says Nobel Prize–Winning Economist
A central cause of subprime banking crisis threatening world economy

U.S. Protests Shrink as Anti-War Sentiment Grows
Infighting, fatigue take toll | “People are tired . . . frustrated . . . they didn’t expect this to go on so long.”

Where Have All the Protests Gone?
Number and magnitude of demonstrations diminishing | By Tom Engelhardt

‘Way of War’ Has Replaced ‘American Way’
Director of ‘Why We Fight’ warns: ‘The forces that control whether we go to war . . . don’t care who’s in the White House.’

(video) “War Made Easy,” narrated by Sean Penn
50 years of gov’t deception + media spin, with archival footage, from LBJ to W

Seymour Hersh: Bush, Cheney Redefine Iraq War as Strategic Battle Between U.S. and Iran
“New Yorker” reports “significant increase in the tempo of attack planning”

‘Keep Elevating the Threat,’ ‘Link Iraq to Iran,’ Advised Rumsfeld
Former SecDef’s ‘snowflakes’ shaped policy | ‘Sacrifice = Victory’

Army Corps of Engineers Restoring Iraqi Wetlands
(vintage news item) | Still waiting for serious U.S. effort for Louisiana’s eroding coastline

There Is No “War on Terror”

The “War on Terror”: A Masterpiece of Propaganda
The fraudulence of the “War on Terror” is visible in the pattern of actions before and after its launch | by Richard W. Behan, AlterNet

Videos

(video) When the Saints Go Marching In
By BraveNewFilms.org in support of Sen. Chris Dodd’s Gulf Coast Recovery Bill of 2007

(video) Charity Can Be Preserved + Improved
“Renew. Restore. Reopen” says Foundation for Historical Louisiana

(video) WBRZ-TV Report on LSU’s Firing of Ivor Van Heerden
Deputy director of LSU Hurricane Center, critic of Army Corps of Engineers a political liability for state university

(video) Displaced New Orleanians Explain Acute Housing Shortage (NYT)
“Where we supposed to go?”

(video) Rachel Maddow: Does Bush Actually Remember Katrina?
Jed Horne helps correct the record | “Lame Duck Watch” special report

(vintage video) Tim Russert Grills Michael Chertoff on Katrina Response
Watch former DHS secretary sweat while disavowing responsibility

(video) Dr. John Asks for Your Help: “Tell Shell”
Gulf Restoration Network’s message plane flying over Jazz Fest needs your $ help

(video) Naomi Klein Explains “Shock Doctrine,” or Disaster Capitalism
Interviewed by John Cusack for Huffington Post

Scathing Ad Mocks GOP’s Disaster Management Skills
“I don’t think the Founding Fathers put FEMA in the Constitution” | By Accountable America.com

(video) Keith Olbermann’s “Nexus of Politics & Terror” Timeline
How Bush admin. exploits terror threats for political gain, 2002–08

ObamaVision

(video) Obama in New Orleans: Rebuilding, Two Years Later
“If we don’t get this right . . . we as a nation have forgotten to look out for one another”

(video) Obama Speaks at Tulane
February 7, 2008

(video) Obama Pledges “Action Now” on Economic Recovery: Jobs, Public Works

(video) Obama speech: Confronting an Economic Crisis
Wall St. woes “final verdict” on failed economic philosophy | Candidate Obama chronicles how he has responded to crisis that McCain has denied

Obama’s Victory Speech (video + transcript)
From Grant Park, Chicago, Nov. 4, 2008

(video) “One Week”: Obama’s Closing Argument
October 27, 2008: “We can’t afford to . . . let up for one day, one minute”

(video) “60 Minutes” Interview with Obama and Biden
Steve Kroft, interviewer | aired Sept. 1, 2008

(video) Obama’s Wesleyan Univ. Commencement Address
On Service to One’s Country | Standing in for Senator Edward Kennedy, “our friend . . . our champion”

Barack Obama: “A More Perfect Union” (video & transcript)
Senator’s extraordinary March 18, 2008, speech on race in America