The Great Deluge, Douglas Brinkley
The Great Deluge, Douglas Brinkley
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The Great Deluge

Author: Douglas Brinkley

Narrator: Kyf Brewer

Abridged: 6 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 06/13/2006


Synopsis

In the span of five violent hours on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed major Gulf Coast cities and flattened 150 miles of coastline. Yet those wind-torn hours represented only the first stage of the relentless triple tragedy that Katrina brought to the entire Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Mississippi to Alabama. First was the hurricane, one of the three strongest ever to make landfall in the United States -- 150 mile per hour winds, with gusts measuring more than 180 miles per hour ripping buildings to pieces. Second, the storm-surge flooding, which submerged a half million homes, creating the largest refugee crisis since the Civil War. Eighty percent of New Orleans was under water, and whole towns in southeastern Louisiana ceased to exist. And third, the human tragedy of government mismanagement, which proved as cruel as the natural disaster itself.In The Great Deluge, bestselling author Douglas Brinkley, a New Orleans resident and professor of history at Tulane University, rips the story of Katrina apart and relates what the category 3 hurricane was like from every point of view, while recognizing the true heroes.Throughout the book, Brinkley lets the Katrina survivors tell their own stories, masterfully allowing them to record the nightmare that was Katrina. The Great Deluge investigates the failure of government at each level and breaks important new stories. Packed with interviews and original research, it traces the character flaws, inexperience, and ulterior motives that allowed the Katrina disaster to turn the Gulf Coast into a scene from a war movie or a third-world documentary.

About Douglas Brinkley

Douglas Brinkley is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, presidential historian for the New-York Historical Society, trustee of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. The Chicago Tribune dubbed him “America’s New Past Master.” He is the recipient of such distinguished environmental leadership prizes as the Frances K. Hutchison Medal (Garden Club of America), the Robin W. Winks Award for Enhancing Public Understanding of National Parks (National Parks Conservation Association), and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Lifetime Heritage Award. His book The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast received the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. He was awarded a Grammy for Presidential Suite and is the recipient of seven honorary doctorates in American studies. His two-volume, annotated Nixon Tapes won the Arthur S. Link–Warren F. Kuehl Prize. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and three children.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Schuyler on June 21, 2010

*WARNING! A COMPLETELY REASONABLE AMOUNT OF CURSE WORDS, CONSIDERING THE TOPIC, ARE CONTAINED IN THE FOLLOWING REVIEW* I had a vague understanding of what went down in New Orleans after Katrina hit, but after finishing this powerhouse history lesson by Brinkley, I realize I didn't know shit. I mean,......more

Goodreads review by Jimmy on May 21, 2017

An outstanding review of the Katrina disaster. Plenty of blame to spread around: Governor Blanco, Mayor Nagin, the NOPD. Too much blame perhaps on FEMA director Brown, probably because of the "Helluva job, Brownie" comment made by President Bush, who deserves a lot of blame. One guy that got off too......more

Goodreads review by Tom on February 02, 2009

Apparently the only people able to get their heads out of their asses were the United States Coast Guard, the 'Cajun Navy', and Lt. Gen. Russel Honore. Here's a chilling quote from a reporter and former swift boat pilot who helped out: "The water didn't remind me of Vietnam," he said. "The dying did.......more

Goodreads review by Frank on February 09, 2010

So disappointing. I wanted to read just one good book on Katrina, which after all was the greatest disaster to befall an American city in almost a hundred years. Seems important to know about, so I looked around. This book got the most praise, the most awards, and the most blurbs, so I gave it a cha......more

Goodreads review by Sophy on June 16, 2023

Well I'm finally throwing in the towel on this one! I'll admit I did not finish it but rather skim read from about p450 to the end. Whilst no one can accuse Brinkley of not being thorough, there is just wayyyyyy too much information presented in this book to wade through. I totally understand that t......more