The Continuing Storm – Learning from Katrina: Learning from Katrina

More than fifteen years later, Hurricane Katrina maintains a strong grip on the American imagination. The reason is not simply that Katrina was an event of enormous scale, although it certainly was by any measure one of the most damaging storms in American history. But, quite apart from its lethality and destructiveness, Katrina retains a place in living memory because it is one of the most telling disasters in our recent national experience, revealing important truths about our society and ourselves. The final volume in the award-winning Katrina Bookshelf series Higher Ground reflects upon what we have learned about Katrina and about America. Kai Erikson and Lori Peek expand our view of the disaster by assessing its ongoing impact on individual lives and across the wide-ranging geographies where displaced New Orleanians landed after the storm. Such an expanded view, the authors argue, is critical for understanding the human costs of catastrophe across time and space. Concluding with a broader examination of disasters in the years since Katrina-including COVID-19-The Continuing Storm is a sobering meditation on the duration of a catastrophe that continues to exact steep costs in human suffering.

Table of Contents:
Prelude I. A Hurricane Known as Katrina 1. Along the Shores of the Gulf 2. On the Streets of New Orleans II. Locating Katrina 3. In Time 4. In Space III. Katrina as Human Experience 5. Before: Seeking Out the Most Vulnerable 6. During: Being Battered by the Storm 7. After: The Pains of Displacement Postlude Acknowledgments Notes About the Authors Index

About the Author :
Kai Erikson is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor Emeritus of Sociology and American Studies at Yale University. He is the author of Wayward Puritans, Everything in Its Path, A New Species of Trouble, and The Sociologist's Eye. Lori Peek is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is the author of Behind the Backlash, coauthor of Children of Katrina, and coeditor of Displaced and the Handbook of Environmental Sociology.

Review :
Erikson and Peek provide an enlightening perspective on hazards and disasters that needs to be taken into account...[and] should have broad appeal and utility.-- "International Journal of Mass Emergencies & Disasters" (3/1/2024 12:00:00 AM) This series is arguably the most comprehensive set of scholarly books on a single natural disaster ever published, and Erikson and Peek are two of the most experienced researchers of disasters...This work is incredibly valuable, particularly when taken as part of the whole series on Katrina, in providing detailed, often heavily data-driven, insight into the effects of not just a tragic natural disaster, but of the historical accumulation of decisions, policies, and institutions shaping inequality in the United States.-- "American Studies" (5/4/2024 12:00:00 AM) Essential.-- "CHOICE" (6/1/2023 12:00:00 AM) The authors have provided a wonderfully succinct account of Hurricane Katrina that clearly emphasizes the importance of viewing this disaster as an ongoing phenomenon...Erickson and Peek make important contributions to field of critical disaster studies, the study of disaster time frames, and the study of trauma that individuals who endure disasters experience. The Continuing Storm is recommended for those who teach undergraduate courses on environmental history and sociology, history and sociology of disasters, and the sociology of trauma. This book would also serve as a terrific introduction to Katrina for both academic and non-academic audiences.-- "H-Environment" (9/7/2022 12:00:00 AM) For the final installment of University of Texas Press' Katrina Bookshelf collection, two of the most discerning voices in disaster sociology, Kai Erikson and Lori Peek, offer answers in a short and powerfully written new book, The Continuing Storm. . . In applying the insights beyond the specific case of Katrina, the book, therefore, concludes as powerfully as it begins, recognizing that most 'storms' have just begun. This excellent book is readable for a variety of audiences, thoroughly insightful, and represents the sociology of disaster at its finest.-- "Social Forces" (8/12/2023 12:00:00 AM) [The Katrina Bookshelf] is the only series of writings that explores the multiple levels of a disaster and its extended aftermath over a nearly two-decade period. As such, the series provides a much needed understanding of the complexity of disaster response and recovery, of long-term toll disaster takes on people, families, and communities. The Continuing Storm serves as a series capstone of sorts, locating Katrina in both time and space while revisiting the chaos fostered by the immediate storm and flooding. The book also extensively reviews the impact of race and racism on Katrina response and recovery.-- "Recovery Diva" (6/30/2022 12:00:00 AM) The Continuing Storm is a succinct volume about how racism, poverty, and other human-made injustices exacerbate natural disasters.-- "Foreword Reviews" (4/19/2022 12:00:00 AM)