| Hurricane Katrina: The Mississippi Story Contributor(s): Smith, James Patterson (Author) |
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ISBN: 1617030236 ISBN-13: 9781617030239 Publisher: University Press of Mississippi OUR PRICE: $31.50 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: March 2012 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | United States - State & Local - South (al,ar,fl,ga,ky,la,ms,nc,sc,tn,va,wv) - History | United States - 21st Century - Nature | Natural Disasters |
| Dewey: 976.206 |
| LCCN: 2011032598 |
| Physical Information: 1.09" H x 6.37" W x 9.07" (1.46 lbs) 272 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 21st Century - Geographic Orientation - Mississippi - Cultural Region - Gulf Coast |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This book presents the fullest account yet written of the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Rooted in a wealth of oral histories, it tells the dramatic but underreported story of a people who confronted the unprecedented devastation of sixty-five-thousand homes when the eye wall and powerful northeast quadrant of the hurricane swept a record thirty-foot storm surge across a seventy-five-mile stretch of unprotected Mississippi towns and cities. James Patterson Smith takes us through life and death accounts of storm day, August 29, 2005, and the precarious days of food and water shortages that followed. Along the way the narrative treats us to inspiring episodes of neighborly compassion and creative responses to the greatest natural disaster in American history. The heroes of this saga are the local people and local officials. In often moving accounts, the book addresses the Mississippi Gulf Coast's long struggle to remove a record-setting volume of debris and get on with the rebuilding of homes, schools, jobs, and public infrastructure. Along the way readers are offered insights into the politics of recovery funding and the bureaucratic bungling and hubris that afflicted the storm response and complicated and delayed the work of recovery. Still, there are ample accounts of things done well, and a moving chapter gives us a feel for the psychological, spiritual, and material impact of the eight hundred thousand people from across the nation who gave of themselves as volunteers in the Mississippi recovery effort. |
Contributor Bio(s): Smith, James Patterson: - James Patterson Smith is an associate professor of history at the University of Southern Mississippi. He has published in numerous periodicals, including the Journal of Negro History and the Journal of Mississippi History. |