The most impressive thing about Douglas Brinkley’s book on Katrina is the fact that he got it to press in 2006, only a year after the hurricane hit. The sheer volume of material incorporated — as attested to by the copious footnotes — is quite impressive. Brinkley deserves great credit for this gargantuan contribution to public memory of this horrific natural disaster. Assembled so soon after the events it recounts, it serves both to record the raw data of the time and as a piece of history itself, a window into the gnawing heartache that reigned in south Louisiana a year after the storm.
In that light, here’s a compendium of the worst of the government incompetence and malfeasance documented in the book:
- It took four days after Katrina hit for federal first responders to arrive in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. (Brinkley 163)
- Michael Brown, director of FEMA at the time, ordered all emergency responders from outside the Gulf South to stay home on Monday following the storm. (Brinkley 254)
- In response to an email from a subordinate in New Orleans saying that the “situation is past critical,” Brown responded: “Thanks for the update…Anything specific we need to do or tweak?” (Brinkley 254)
- A few hours later, Brown’s press secretary emailed saying, “it is very important that time is allowed for Mr. Brown to eat dinner. Given that Baton Rouge is back to normal, restaurants are getting busy. He needs much more that 20 or 30 minutes. We now have traffic to encounter to get to and from a location of his choice, followed by wait service from the restaurant staff, eating, etc.” This while tens of thousands of people were stranded in New Orleans with almost no food or water. (Brinkley 254)
- The Pentagon delayed the departure of 200 National Guard troops from New Mexico on the grounds that they had to get clearance before they could be transported across state lines. (Brinkley 421)
- Condolezza Rice was on vacation in New York shopping for shoes on Fifth Avenue when Katrina went down. A shopper spotted her and shouted, “How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying and homeless?” That same evening, she saw Spamalot. Word got around that she was present, and when the lights came up she was booed. Served her right. (Brinkley 440)
- FEMA redirected a group of 100 first responders to Atlanta for sensitivity and anti-sexual harassment training. This was on Wednesday, three days after Katrina had hit. Because it’s not like, you know, people were dying or anything. (Brinkley 441)
These are just some of the juicier details. The broader failures are less shocking, but ultimately more egregious. For example, FEMA conducted an exercise in 2004 called “Hurricane Pam” that accurately predicted what might happen to New Orleans if a major hurricane struck, but no disaster preparedness plans were put into action. Ray Nagin failed to provide leadership during Katrina and quite possibly had a nervous breakdown during the storm. Partisan squabbling and power plays between Governor Kathleen Blanco, a Democrat, and Bush, a Republican, held up federal relief efforts. Brinkley artfully depicts these shenanigans and really brings home the immense human toll they exacted.
The book does have its negatives, most of which also seem to stem from its being so hastily assembled. To wit: Brinkley’s voice isn’t consistent throughout; when he indicts certain actors for their mistakes he sometimes goes out on a limb, making accusations beyond what the information he provides seems to warrant; likewise, his tone sometimes gets a bit shrill and un-scholarly; there are sloppy copy errors and there seem to be a few factual errors as well.
That said, it’s a powerful book. Its greatest value lies in the little details Brinkley assembles. We know the death toll, and we know the cost of the storm. Social scientists of all stripes will examine the human effects. But it’s these little details that make his account shine. His book is at its weakest when it attempts to make political or sociological arguments. It is at its strongest by far when it attempts to tell the story of what happened during Katrina. Given that it purports to be a work of history, this is heartening. Its greatest value is in the sheer volume of detail it assembles for posterity.
