CNN Reports: Hurricane Katrina: State of Emergency

After visiting the areas most impacted by Katrina, I bought this book in the search for a better understanding. I highly recommend reading this if you are interested in a thorough day-day report of the events leading up to, during and after this tragedy. Basically, CNN did an excellent joy in outling how the local, state and federal government really dropped the ball. While each organization was either praising or blaming the other, people were floating in the streets. This is not a book that is easy to read, but I highly recommend it.

I am a Katrina survivor. I was there during and after the storm. First of all, many people do not know the facts. New Orleans is 12 feet below sea level not 7. Second the levees were contracted to be built to withstand a cat.3 hurricane. The core of engineers were the ones who built the levees wrong. Third the State of Louisiana asked for money to rebuild the levees many years ago. That money was denied. It was too expensive for the country. So now it cost many billions of dollars to rebuild the city. A fine example of our government! A large number of very poor people were not able to evacuate. They had no transportation. They had no relatives to go to as all their families were living in the same poor section of town as they were. They had no money to go to hotels or any other place. These people were forgotten and left to die. Their was no disaster plan that stated how to evacuate the poor. Hundreds of school buses went underwater. These buses could have been used to evacuate the poor. I am ashamed to be a native of New Orleans. My city and state and country let us all down. The book is very good and describes the situation well. You really had to be there to see all the news and writers never saw. Many of us have left our home city, never to return. This is so sad!

Hurricane Katrina changed the lives of many. This book recounts what occurred during that time in history.